Growth Hormone Helps Counter Aging Effects

A study has found that injecting or implanting growth hormone-1 (IGF-1) in elderly rats can dramatically improve the production of vital cells to fight disease while increasing lean body mass and reducing body fat.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois (Champaign, USA) and was published in the February 2002 issue of Endocrinology. Aging rats, two years old, were injected or implanted with plasma growth hormone-1, which stimulated the production of immunity-promoting hematopoietic cells in bone marrow as well as in the spleen, liver, and adrenal glands. Production was three times that of similarly aged, untreated rats and 80% of the production in the fit, younger rats in the control group.

Normal growth hormone production declines as people age. Muscle size and tone wane, and fat accumulates not only in readily visible areas of the body but also within bone marrow, where it fills a void created by a declining number of hematopoietic cells. Some doctors are now prescribing growth-hormone therapy to the elderly to counter the effects of aging.

"If similar results occur in the aged human, this kind of treatment approach could lead to an increase in the reserve capacity of both red and white cells,” said Keith W. Kelley, professor of animal sciences at UI and lead investigator.




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