Based on phage display optimization studies with human growth hormone (GH), it is thought that the biopotency of GH cannot be increased. This is proposed to be a result of the affinity of the first receptor for hormone far exceeding that which is required to trap the hormone long enough to allow diffusion of the second receptor to form the ternary complex, which initiates signaling. We report h...

The advancement of "human growth hormone (hGH)-for-height" - increasing height attainment in children short for reasons other than GH deficiency - arose from intuitive, deep-seated assumptions about the disability of short stature, its improvement with hGH-mediated height gain, and the safety of escalating dosages of hGH in healthy children. Evidence challenging these assumptions now strengthen...

The robust and tissue-specific activation of the human growth hormone (hGH) gene cluster in the pituitary and placenta constitutes an informative model for analysis of gene regulation. The five-gene hGH cluster is regulated by two partially overlapping sets of DNase I hypersensitive sites (HSs) that constitute the pituitary (HSI, II, III and V) and placental (HSIII, IV, and V) locus control reg...

Growth hormone (GH) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. We sought to determine whether this could be mediated by an effect of GH on proliferation of endothelial cells, and, for this purpose, established long-term cultures of human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (hREC) from normal postmortem human eyes. High-purity (greater than 95%) hREC prepa...

Two distinct population of vesicles can be identified in PC12 cells by subcellular fractionation and immunofluorescence. Density gradient separation reveals one population of dense vesicles that contains the transgenic regulated secretory protein hGH (human growth hormone) along with the endogenous neurotransmitter norepinephrine. Some of the neuronal vesicle marker synaptophysin (P38) is also ...

Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) is an aggressive neoplasm with a low frequency of occurrence in the digestive tract. We present a series of eight patients diagnosed with LCNEC of the colon and rectum. Grossly, tumors were presented as endophytic/ulcerative, annular and polypoid masses, with a gray-white color and necrosis in most cases. Histologically, they were high-grade tumors co...

Ribozymes are a new pharmaceutical class of reagents that offer potential in treating a number of different medical disorders, including infectious diseases and cancer. As a first step towards using ribozymes for the treatment of liver disorders such as viral hepatitis, adenovirus vectors that contain a ribozyme expression cassette under the control of different promoters directed against human...

Glucose tolerance tests have been performed on five patients with Huntington's chorea and no difference in response has been observed compared with seven controls. Insulin tolerance tests have been performed on 12 patients with Huntington's chorea and 10 controls. Blood samples were taken at regular intervals for 75 minutes and analysed for blood glucose, insulin, and growth hormone (HGH). Ther...

BACKGROUND Based on the increasing body of evidence that adults with human growth hormone (hGH) deficiency exhibit signs of impaired health, many countries have approved the use of hGH (somatotropin) as a replacement therapy in deficient adults. The results and efficacy of hGH therapy are strikingly consistent. Untreated hGH deficient adults are shown to have increased cardiovascular mortality,...