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Molecular Forms of Human Growth Hormone Secreted in Vivo: Nonspecificity of Secretory Stimuli^*

Center for Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Medical School Chicago, IL 60611

Address requests for reprints to: Dr. Gerhard Baumann, Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Medical School, 303 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60611.

Several molecular forms of human GH (hGH) are present in blood, but their individual regulation is largely unknown. To examine the factors controlling the secretion of individual hGH variants, the relationship between the mixture of circulating hGH forms and the type of preceding secretory stimulus was studied in 18 normal subjects and 5 acromegalic patients. The stimuli employed were L-dopa, GH-releasing hormone-(l–40), exercise, spontaneous sleep-related and daytime secretory bursts, estrogens, and TRH in the acromegalic patients. Three monomeric hGH forms (22K, 20K, and acidic hGH) were identified in all samples; their mean relative proportions were 76.4%, 15.8%, and 7.9%, respectively. These proportions were similar in all subjects, regardless of stimulus, sex, or presence of acromegaly (P > 0.25). We conclude that the release of individual hGH forms is not stimulus specific, but, rather, that the secretory granule contents are released in toto upon somatotroph stimulation.

^* This work was presented in part at the Seventh International Congress of Endocrinology, Quebec, Canada, 1984 (Abstract 2046). It was supported by NIH Grants AM-27047, AM-07169, AM-10699, RR-48, and RR-0537.

Received November 19, 1985.

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