LACK OF PLACENTAL TRANSFER OF HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE

Abstract

Fourteen healthy women were given intravenous injections of either high doses of non-labelled or tracer doses of ¹³¹I-labelled human growth hormone (HGH) between 270 and 10 minutes before delivery. The concentration of HGH in the plasma was followed at intervals up to delivery and then in the cord plasma and newborn infant. Both methods of study showed that growth hormone is not transferred from the mother to the foetus. An additional finding was the shortened biological half life (t½) of ¹³¹I-HGH in the women at delivery as compared to that in normal adults or adolescents.