Growth hormone, glucose, and free fatty acid levels in mother and infant in normal, diabetic and toxaemic pregnancies.

Only a few investigations concerning growth hormone (HGH) levels in maternal and cord blood in humans have been made. These were limited to normal pregnancies (Greenwood, Hunter, and Klopper, 1964; Yen, Pearson, and Stratman, 1965). Though the absolute values of HGH cannot be compared in these two investigations since different methods of measuring the HGH were used, both studies found a higher concentration ofHGH in the umbilical arterial plasma than in the umbilical venous and maternal plasma, suggesting an active secretion of HGH by the foetal anterior pituitary. This was further confirmed by the observations made by Cornblath, Parker, Reisner, Forbes, and Daughaday (1965), and Laron, Mannheimer, Pertzelan, and Nitzan (1966), who found, in newborn babies, conspicuously raised plasma growth hormone concentrations, equal to those found in acromegalic subjects. The present investigation was designed to study the mother-infant relationship of HGH in diabetic and toxaemic pregnancies, about which there is no available information.