All issues > Volume 31(1); 1988

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1988;31(1):64-71. Published online January 31, 1988.

The Effect of Thyroid Hormone Deficiensy on Growth Hormone Levels.

Duk Hi Kim¹, Chan Il Park²

¹Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
²Department of Pathology, Yonsei University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Received: July 23, 1987;

Abstract

Growth hormone and thyroid hormone are known to affect growth and development. The present experiment was undertaken to assess GH levels in the serum and pituitary gland of prophylthiouracil (PTU) treated rats. The serum concentration of T4 were decreased during PTU treatment. Serum GH concentration and pituitary GH content were decresed with severity of hypothyroid status. After withdrawl of PTU, their levels were recovered gradually. Acidophil granulation and populations dropped during PTU treatment, whereas subsequent withdrawal of PTU allowed pituitary histologic changes to return to normal. The results suggested that thyroid hormone, acts directly on synthesis of GH by the pituitary gland. Thus, much of the failure of growth in hypothyroidism may be related to decreased synthesis and secretion of GH.

Keywords :Hypothyroidism, Growth hormone, Dwarfism