THE EFFECT OF HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE ON SUBCUTANEOUS FAT THICKNESS IN HYPOSOMATOTROPHIC AND PANHYPOPITUITARY DWARFS

SUMMARY The changes in skinfold thickness over the triceps and under the scapula were measured by the same observer every 3 months in 21 children before and during treatment with human growth hormone (HGH). Eleven hyposomatotrophic dwarfs showed a trebling of their rate of height growth during the first 3 months of treatment, and in all, the skinfolds, measuring mainly the amount of subcutaneous fat, decreased during the first 3 months of treatment. In some subjects in this group the skinfold values tended to rise gradually again as treatment progressed. All except two of these children had very high initial skinfold values; the average percentile was above the 75th before treatment, and at the 50th after 3 months of treatment. Four children, thought to have the same diagnosis, showed little or no height acceleration; they showed also little or no response in skinfold thickness; three of them were initially lean. Two small normal children and one child with gonadal dysgenesis responded neither in height nor in skinfolds. Three children with operated craniopharyngiomas responded well in height, but only one responded unequivocally in skinfolds. We think the response in dwarfed children represents a true metabolic action of HGH, since there was clinical evidence of a rise and not of a diminution in appetite. The possible implications of these results in the understanding of the physiological events underlying the normal curve of growth in fat in children, particularly at infancy and adolescence, are outlined.