Endocrine Abstracts

Growth hormone (GH) secretion peaks in early adult life and declines progressively with age. People over the age of 60 have levels of GH secretion comparable to those in younger people with severe GH deficiency from pituitary tumours or their treatment. GH-dependent markers such as IGF-I, BP3, ALS and the collagen markers P-III-P, PICP, ITCP and osteocalcin all fall with age in parallel with the fall in GH secretion. Although exercise is one of the major stimuli to GH secretio...

Introduction: Using discriminant analysis, a method based on two growth hormone (GH) dependent markers, insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and pro-collagen type III N-terminal peptide (P-III-P) has been devised to detect exogenously administered GH. It is believed that GH is a popular substance of abuse amongst adolescent athletes. As previous studies on the detection of GH abuse involved predominantly adult athletes, it is necessary to validate the method in adolescent athl...