IgE antibodies to human growth hormone prior to and during treatment.

Clinical manifestations of allergy to biosynthetic hGH were not reported in 245 patients treated for one year. A sensitive radioallergosorbent test showed, however, the presence of anti-hGH IgE antibodies in the sera of 13%. All patients with anti-hGH IgE had also elevated concentrations of total serum IgE, similar to atopic persons (2459 +/- 147 micrograms/l, normal 70 +/- 8, 2p less than 0.0001); 83% of all patients who had specific IgE antibodies to hGH had specific antibodies prior to treatment. Administration of hGH did not consistently change concentrations (up to 8 micrograms/l) or affinities (less than 10(7) to 1.3 X 10(9) l/mol) of the specific reagins. Anti-hGH IgE antibodies were related to atopy. Treatment with biosynthetic hGH did not significantly stimulate specific IgE.