Peptide directoryBrain, hypothalamus & pituitary

Growth hormone

The pituitary hormone of height and lean mass, and a much-abused one.

Related medicinesSomatropinSomapacitanLonapegsomatropinSomatrogonPegvisomant

Where it comes from

Made in
Somatotroph cells, nearly half the anterior pituitary
Sent out by
In pulses, the largest in deep sleep; GHRH and ghrelin drive it, somatostatin stops it; exercise, fasting and hypoglycaemia raise it, obesity and age blunt it
Acts on
  • Liver (IGF-1)
  • Growth plates
  • Muscle and fat
  • Bone

What it does

  • Drives childhood growth, through IGF-1 and directly at the growth plate
  • Builds lean mass and burns fat; keeps bone and muscle in adults
  • Raises blood glucose by opposing insulin

In medicine

  • Somatropin treats growth hormone deficiency in children and adults, Turner, Prader-Willi and Noonan syndromes, chronic kidney disease, small-for-gestational-age short stature, and in the US idiopathic short stature; weekly forms (somapacitan, lonapegsomatropin, somatrogon) arrived from 2020
  • Acromegaly, from a pituitary tumour, is treated with surgery, somatostatin analogues and pegvisomant, a growth hormone receptor blocker

Beyond the body’s own use

  • Randomised trials in young fit adults show more lean mass but no gain in strength or exercise capacity, and blood lactate rose during exercise in two of the three studies that measured it, so performance may be worse rather than better 2
  • In healthy older people the same small change in body composition came with swelling, joint pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and more new diabetes; the 2007 review of 18 study populations and 220 treated participants concluded growth hormone cannot be recommended as an anti-ageing therapy 1
  • A 1990 study of a dozen men over 60 started the anti-ageing use; distributing growth hormone as an anti-ageing agent is illegal in the United States 3
  • Growth hormone, its analogues and the fragments promoted for fat loss, AOD-9604 and hGH 176-191 among them, are banned in sport at all times under section S2 of the Prohibited List 4

Sources

  1. Liu et al., The safety and efficacy of growth hormone in the healthy elderly, Annals of Internal Medicine 2007
  2. Liu et al., The effects of growth hormone on athletic performance, Annals of Internal Medicine 2008
  3. Perls et al., Provision or distribution of growth hormone for antiaging, JAMA 2005
  4. World Anti-Doping Agency, The Prohibited List, section S2

This card describes what a medicine is for and what the evidence says; it recommends nothing. Talk to your clinician about anything you read here.