Clinical Use of Growth Hormone Secretagogues

In 1977, Bowers etal. observed that met-enkephalin analogs could stimulate secretion of growth hormone from pituitary cells (1). In 1981, Momany and Bowers (2) described additional work on the conformational analysis of small peptides that stimulate GH secretion (growth hormone releasing peptides, GHRPs), followed by their demonstration in 1984 that the hexapeptide His-DTrp-Ala-Trp-DPhe-Lys (GHRP-6) caused secretion of GH from the pituitary cells of several species, including the chick, monkey, lambs, calves, and rats (3). It was subsequently demonstrated that as a class, GHRPs elicit GH release in humans when delivered intravenously (4), intranasally (5), or orally (6).