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. 1993 Apr;91(4):1783–1791. doi: 10.1172/JCI116389

Chronic growth hormone (GH) hypersecretion induces reciprocal and reversible changes in mRNA levels from hypothalamic GH-releasing hormone and somatostatin neurons in the rat.

J Bertherat 1, J Timsit 1, M T Bluet-Pajot 1, J J Mercadier 1, D Gourdji 1, C Kordon 1, J Epelbaum 1
PMCID: PMC288159  PMID: 8097209

Abstract

Effects of growth hormone (GH) hypersecretion on somatostatin-(SRIH) and GH-releasing hormone (GHRH) were studied by in situ hybridization and receptor autoradiography in rats bearing a GH-secreting tumor. 6 and 18 wk after tumor induction, animals displayed a sharp increase in body weight and GH plasma levels; pituitary GH content was reduced by 47 and 55%, while that of prolactin and thyrotropin was unchanged. At 18 wk, hypothalamic GHRH and SRIH levels had fallen by 84 and 52%, respectively. In parallel, the density of GHRH mRNA per arcuate neuron was reduced by 52 and 50% at 6 and 18 wk, while SRIH mRNA levels increased by 71 and 83% in the periventricular nucleus (with no alteration in the hilus of the dentate gyrus). The numbers of GHRH- and SRIH-synthetizing neurons in the hypothalamus were not altered in GH-hypersecreting rats. Resection of the tumor restored hypothalamic GHRH and SRIH mRNAs to control levels. GH hypersecretion did not modify 125I-SRIH binding sites on GHRH neurons. Thus, chronic GH hypersecretion affects the expression of the genes encoding for GHRH and SRIH. The effect is long lasting, not desensitizable and reversible.

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