Medicine: Key to Growth

Re-creating a hormone factor

The gradual growth that a child experiences between birth and maturity is regulated by a powerful hormone produced in the body's "master gland," or pituitary. If too much of the hormone is created, the child may become a giant; too little may cause a rare form of dwarfism. The production of the growth hormone is determined by another hormone, known as growth hormone-releasing factor (GRF). Scientists have known for decades that GRF is produced by the hypothalamus, located in the forebrain. But the problem of isolating GRF and then artificially...