Human growth hormone (hGH) is an endocrine hormone produced and stored by the anterior pituitary gland. hGH can promote the formation of articular cartilage and the growth of epiphyseal cartilage through intergrowth hormone, which is indispensable for human growth. It is also regulated by other hormones secreted by the hypothalamus. If hGH deficiency can cause body growth disorders, resulting in short stature. The secretion of hGH is secreted into the circulation in a pulse way, and it is difficult to detect HGH in the blood when it is in the trough of secretion. It is increased during hunger, exercise and sleep. The pituitary gland of human fetus begins to secrete hGH at the end of the third month, and the serum hGH level of the fetus is significantly increased, but the serum hGH level of full-term newborns is low, and then the secretion level increases in the childhood stage, and reaches a peak in adolescence, and the secretion level of hGH gradually decreases in adults over 30 years old. Normal people need hGH for longitudinal growth, and children with hGH deficiency are short in stature.
In 1958, Raben first reported that the tissue growth of patients with hypophysial dwarf was significantly improved after the injection of human pituitary extract. However, at that time, the only source of hGH was the human adenohypophysial gland for autopsy, and the amount of hGH that could be used for clinical application was very limited. Only about 50 adenohypophysial glands were enough to extract the dose of HGH needed by one patient for one year of treatment. Other pituitary hormones may also be contaminated due to purification techniques. With the development of science and technology, it is now possible to produce human growth hormone by genetic engineering. hGH produced by this method has the same structure as hGH in human body with high purity and few side effects. Due to the abundant sources of drugs, not only the children with pituitary GHD can be treated, but also the treatment of short stature caused by other reasons.
Using growth hormone to treat short stature, the goal is to allow the child to catch up, maintain a normal growth rate, gain the opportunity for rapid puberty, and eventually reach adult height. Long-term clinical practice has proved that growth hormone is a safe and effective treatment drug, and the earlier the start of treatment, the better the effect of treatment.
Although growth hormone is also called hormone, it is completely different from sex hormone and glucocorticoid in terms of source, chemical structure, physiology, pharmacology and other aspects, and will not produce side effects of sex hormone and glucocorticoid. Growth hormone is a peptide hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary gland of human body. It is composed of 191 amino acids and has a molecular weight of 22KD. Growth hormone plays its physiological function by stimulating the liver and other tissues to produce insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), promoting bone growth, promoting body anabolism and protein synthesis, promoting lipolysis, and inhibiting glucose utilization. Before puberty, the growth and development of the human body mainly rely on growth hormone and thyroxine, puberty development, growth hormone synergistic sex hormone, further promote the rapid growth of height, if the child's body lack of growth hormone, it will cause growth delay, at this time, it needs to supplement exogenous growth hormone.
