OBJECTIVE Supraphysiological levels of ghrelin and GH induce insulin resistance. Serum levels of retinol-binding protein-4 (RBP4) correlate inversely with insulin sensitivity in patients with type 2 diabetes. We aimed to determine whether ghrelin and GH affect RBP4 levels in human subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS To study GH-independent effects of ghrelin, seven hypopituitary men undergoing re...

Bromocriptine, a potent D2-dopamine agonist, suppresses growth hormone (GH) secretion in most patients with acromegaly and has been approved for the treatment of acromegaly. Here we report a patient with acromegaly who showed increased GH secretion after administration of bromocriptine. A 70-year-old man with acromegalic manifestation was admitted to our hospital because of a pituitary tumor in...

Genetically obese Zucker rats, like obese humans, have normal or elevated circulating insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) levels in the presence of low GH secretion. Hyperinsulinemia, increased energy status, or other nutritional factors associated with obesity could be responsible for these findings directly by increasing hepatic IGF-I production at the transcriptional or posttranscriptional ...

Short term fasting activates the corticotropic and somatotropic, and suppresses the reproductive, axis in men. Analogous neuroendocrine responses are less well characterized in women. Recently, we identified a negative association between the adipocyte-derived nutritional signaling peptide, leptin, and pulsatile GH secretion in older fed women. In the present study, we investigated the impact o...

OBJECTIVE GH is usually the first pituitary hormone to be affected following a pathological insult to the pituitary; however, data on the prevalence of GH deficiency in patients with nonsecreting pituitary microadenomas and normal serum IGF-1 levels are scarce. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of GH and other anterior pituitary hormone deficiencies, and to determine whether microadeno...

OBJECTIVE Serum IGF-I levels are monitored during GH replacement treatment in adults with GH deficiency (GHD) to guide GH dose adjustment and to minimize occurrence of GH-related side-effects. This is not routine practice in children treated with GH. The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in (1) serum IGF-I, IGFBP-3 and IGF-I/IGFBP-3 molar ratio, and (2) serum leptin, an indirect marker ...

The importance of gender-specific growth hormone (GH) secretion pattern in the regulation of growth and metabolism has been demonstrated clearly in rodents. We recently showed that GH secretion in humans is also sexually dimorphic. Whether GH secretion pattern regulates the metabolic effects of GH in humans is largely unknown. To address this question, we administered the same daily intravenous...

GH is involved in growth and development in vertebrates [1]. The actions of GH are initiated by its binding to the specific GH-receptors (GH-R) localized in the cell membrane of target tissues [2]. GH also binds to a soluble GH-binding protein (GH-BP) in serum [3]. The GH-BP is generated from a variant mRNA resulting from an alternative splicing of GH-R mRNA precursor at the exon 7-8 boundary [...

In this report we describe the first case of a girl with acromegaloidism in Japan. She had large and coarse facial features with acral enlargement accompanying height overgrowth; these resemble the manifestations of acromegaly and gigantism due to growth hormone (GH) overproduction. However, pituitary function studies revealed a dysfunction of her GH secretion. Moreover, markedly decreased seru...

Adjuvant-induced arthritis is a chronic inflammatory illness that induces a catabolic state, with a decrease in pituitary GH and hepatic IGF-I synthesis. We have previously observed an increase in serum IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) in arthritic rats, and found that GH administration prevents the increase in circulating IGFBP-3 in arthritic rats. The aim of this work was therefore to study IG...