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Growth hormone (GH) is a protein hormone secreted by the pituitary gland which stimulates growth and cell reproduction. In the past growth hormone was extracted from human pituitary glands. GH is now produced by recombinant DNA technology, and prescribed for a variety of reasons. more...

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GH therapy has been a focus of social and ethical controversies for 50 years.

This article describes the history of GH treatment, current uses, risks, and social controversies arising from GH use. Other articles describe GH physiology, diseases of GH excess (acromegaly and pituitary gigantism), deficiency, the recent phenomenon of HGH controversies, and growth hormone for cows.

Terminology and glossary

Growth hormone (GH) is also called somatotropin (British: somatotrophin). The human form of growth hormone is known as human growth hormone, or hGH (similarly ovine growth hormone, or sheep growth hormone, is abbreviated oGH). GH can refer either to the natural hormone produced by the pituitary (somatotropin), or biosynthetic GH for therapy.

HGH is an abbreviation sometimes used for counterfeit or fake "growth hormone" products. See HGH controversies for a fuller discussion of the origins and changing usages of HGH.

Cadaver growth hormone is the term for GH extracted from human pituitary glands between 1960 and 1985 for therapy of deficient children. In the U.S., cadaver GH, also referred to as NPA growth hormone, was provided by the (National Pituitary Agency), and by other national programs and commercial firms as well. In 1985 it was associated with the development of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and was withdrawn from use.

rhGH refers to recombinant human growth hormone (somatropin). It contains the identical amino acid sequence of human GH and is "natural sequence" GH. It is chemically identical to the growth hormone produced by the pituitary gland. A long-acting somatropin was previously available, but has recently (March 2007) been put on hold by the FDA. Human growth hormone is currently available through multiple pharmacutical companies in the US.

Coincidentally, rhGH also refers to rhesus monkey GH, using the accepted naming convention. Rhesus growth hormone was never used by physicians to treat human patients, but rhesus GH was part of the lore of the underground anabolic steroid community in those years and fraudulent versions may have been bought and sold in gyms.

met-GH refers to methionyl-growth hormone. This was the first recombinant GH product marketed (Protropin by Genentech). It had the same amino acid sequence as human GH with an extra methionine at the end of the chain to facilitate the manufacturing process. It was discontinued in the late 1990s.

Read more at Wikipedia.org