Therapeutic uses of GH

GH has a potentially wide range of therapeutie uses (Table 8.7). To date, however, its major application has been for the treatment of short stature. hGH extracted from human pituitary glands was first used to treat pituitary dwarfism (i.e. caused by sub-optimal pituitary GH secretion), in 1958. It has subsequently proved eflfective in the treatment of short stature caused by a variety of other conditions, including  

The use of hGH extracted from the pituitaries of deceased human donors came to an abrupt end in 1985, when a link between treatment and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD, a rare, but fatal, neurological disorder) was discovered. In this year, a young man who had received hGH therapy some 15 years previously died from CJD, which, investigators concluded, he had contracted from infected pituitary extract (CJD appears to be caused by a prion). At least an additional 12 CJD cases suspected of being caused in the same way have subsequently been documented. Fortunately, several recombinant hGH (rhGH) preparations were coming onstream at that time (Table 8.8), and now all hGH preparations used clinically are derived from recombinant sources. Currently, in excess of 20 000 people are in receipt of rhGH therapy. 

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