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Growth Hormone for the Elderly?

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In addition to promoting linear growth in prepubertal children, growth hormone is often described as having anabolic, lipolytic, and diabetogenic properties. These descriptions are based on the results of diverse short term studies of humans, animals, and isolated tissues, many of which involved the use of large doses of growth hormone.

Until the production of growth hormone by recombinant-DNA methods began, the small supply of pituitary derived human growth hormone limited its use to the treatment of children with growth hormone deficiency. The wide availability of synthetic human growth hormone has made possible long term studies of other potentially beneficial uses of growth hormone and its more physiologic actions.

Growth hormone secretion (and secretion of the other anterior pituitary hormones) is both pulsatile and diurnal, so that serum growth hormone concentrations in young adults range between 0.1 and 30 µg per liter, or even higher. Thus, a single measurement is not sufficient to assess overall growth hormone secretion. Growth hormone acts on the liver and other tissues to stimulate the production of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I, also known as somatomedin C), which is responsible for the growth promoting effects of growth hormone and which serves as an indicator of overall growth hormone secretion. Serum IGF-I concentrations increase in response to both endogenous and exogenously administered growth hormone, are low in cases of growth hormone deficiency, and have little diurnal variation. The production of IGF-I also depends on adequate nutrition and normal hepatic, renal, and thyroid function.

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References:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/323/1/52#R6

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