Hormonal influence on growth

Abstract

In childhood there is a competition for protein which is won by the protein anabolizers, and normal growth results. The protein anabolizers are the growth hormone, thyroxine, insulin, and the androgens ; the protein catabolizers are the glucocorticoids, of which the chief is cortisol. To the classical picture of primary hypopituitary dwarfism these features are added—hypercholesterolaemia, adrenal hypocorticism, and deficient production of corticotrophin. The treatment of primary hypopituitary dwarfism by methyltesterone and thyroid is described, and its differentiation from primordial dwarfism is indicated. Two examples of adrenocortical hyperplasia in childhood are described. In the first, a boy with Cushing's syndrome, arrest of growth resulted ; and in the second, a girl with congenital virilism, average growth has occurred. Two examples of catabolic diseases are discussed—glycogen-storage disease and the Mauriac syndrome in child diabetes. The construction of a simple hormonal formula for growth explains many features of endocrine and metabolic disease in childhood. © 1957, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.