GROWTH HORMONE ISOLATED

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31054, 9 May 1966, Page 15

GROWTH HORMONE ISOLATED

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright; BERKELEY,

(California), May 6. The ingredient in the human body that makes one man 6ft 4in and another 4ft 9in has finally been pinpointed and taken apart, says United Press International.

A team of scientists at the University of California, after vears of research, has isolated H.G.H.—the human growth hormone—and broken it down

into 188 chemical units. Their work was reported yesterday in the journal of the American Chemical Society. The discovery marks a turning point in research which may some day develop an injection which could make a stunted child grow to six feet.

The growth hormone could be used effectively on a part of the body that is growing too large, the researchers said, or could be used to induce growth in one part of the body, as in the case of flat-chested women. The half-dozen or more substances in the pituitary “certainly play a large, vital role in control and well-being of

the body,” Said Dr. Jonathan Dixon, a chemist who participated in the research. H.G.H., besides controlling growth "undoubtedly has other functions in the body,” he said.

Leading the work at the hormone research laboratory was Dr. C. H. Li, assisted by Dr. Dixon and Dr. WangKyng Liu. A drawback to any wide use of H.G.H. in the near future is its extreme scarceness. Pituitaries from 5000 humans were used to obtain one-sixth of an ounce of the hormone, and the growth hormone of animals was found to be ineffective on humans. However, Dr. Li and his

associates said they hope—now that human H.G.H. has been analysed—to find a way to create a chemical substitute, or perhaps to modify animal hormone to make it effective on humans. It was Dr. Li and his associates who succeeded in creating the hormones which are now used to treat arthritis. “This isn’t a re breakthrough in the way that the Sabin vaccine for polio was,” said Dr. Dixon, “but it is a stepping stone.” A number of children apparently doomed to be dwarfs have been treated with H.G.H. at the University of California medical centre and grown normally as a result.