Plasma Growth Hormone Response to Intravenous Administration of Amino Acids

Abstract

The Development of a specific and sensitive radioimmunoassay method for the determination of human growth hormone has made it possible to measure changes of plasma levels of endogenous growth hormone in response to a number of physiologic stimuli. Plasma levels of growth hormone have been shown to rise during or following spontaneous and experimentally induced hypoglycemia (1–3), prolonged fasting (1), vigorous muscular exercise (1, 2), surgical stress (4), inhibition of glucose utilization by 2-desoxy-glucose (1), and a rapid and significant fall in blood glucose levels (5). Administration of glucose to normal individuals promptly suppresses such elevated plasma levels of growth hormone (1, 5). It has been suggested that oral feeding of protein will also reduce levels of growth hormone (2).