The half-life of exogenous growth hormone after suppression of endogenous growth hormone secretion with somatostatin.
Hindmarsh PC., Matthews DR., Brain CE., Pringle PJ., di Silvio L., Kurtz AB., Brook CG.
We have estimated the half-life of serum growth hormone (GH) in six subjects on 14 occasions following an intravenous bolus injection of either 50 or 500 mU of biosynthetic human growth hormone (B-hGH) while endogenous GH secretion was suppressed by a continuous infusion of somatostatin. The disappearance curve of serum GH was mono-exponential and the mean half-life was 8.9 min (SD 1.5). This is less than previously reported and has important implications for the performance of GH profiles, which should be performed with 10-15 min sampling intervals, and the calculation of pituitary GH secretion rates.