Vance M L
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Charlottesville 22908.
Clin Chem. 1990 Mar;36(3):415-20.
Growth-hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH, somatoliberin) is the hypothalamic peptide hormone that specifically stimulates synthesis and release of growth hormone (GH, somatotropin) by somatotrope cells of the anterior pituitary gland. GHRH is the last of the classically postulated hypothalamic hormones to be characterized, synthesized, and used in clinical medicine. In this review of GHRH, I discuss the discovery and characterization of the peptide, its role in the regulation of GH secretion, and its clinical use in pathological states of GH excess and GH deficiency. The two most clinically useful aspects of GHRH are to establish the etiology of GH deficiency, most commonly the result of a hypothalamic GHRH deficiency, and to treat GH-deficient children. Use of GHRH as therapy for GH deficiency currently is experimental and, to date, results encourage the idea of a therapeutic role for this peptide in promoting endogenous GH secretion with resulting acceleration of linear growth.
生长激素释放激素（GHRH，生长释放素）是一种下丘脑肽类激素，它能特异性地刺激垂体前叶生长激素细胞合成和释放生长激素（GH，促生长素）。GHRH是经典假设的下丘脑激素中最后一个被鉴定、合成并应用于临床医学的激素。在这篇关于GHRH的综述中，我将讨论该肽的发现与鉴定、其在生长激素分泌调节中的作用，以及其在生长激素过多和生长激素缺乏的病理状态下的临床应用。GHRH在临床上最有用的两个方面是确定生长激素缺乏的病因，这通常是下丘脑GHRH缺乏的结果，以及治疗生长激素缺乏的儿童。目前，将GHRH用作生长激素缺乏症的治疗方法仍处于实验阶段，迄今为止的结果支持了这种肽在促进内源性生长激素分泌从而加速线性生长方面具有治疗作用的观点。
