Believe it or not, growth hormone aren’t steriods. Steriods are (and I’m stealing this from Taber’s Medical Dictionary) organic compounds containing in its chemical nucleus the perhydrocyclopentanophenathrene ring. Whew- that’s quite a mouthful and it makes me have horrid flashbacks to organic chemistry. Basically, just think of that chart of those 4 ringed chemical structures that everyone gets shown when CAH is mentioned. You start with cholesterol, which further down the line is converted to 17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone which, by 21 hydroxlase action, is turned into 11 deoxycortisol, etc, etc. Those are your perhydro.... rings.

Growth hormone is a polypeptide hormone and is much more complex than your basic steriod. It’s structure involves peptide bonds linking amino acids together in a polypeptide chain (now I’m referencing principles of biochemistry written by a 5 people a whole lot smarter than me)  Looking at the differences at structures is probably why steriods, which have a simpler structure, can be take in pill form and be absorbed by our digestive tracts without being distroyed and something as complex as as growth hormones have to be injected.  Anyone know anything about this?

There are definant links between GH and cortisol. I mean, just look at how oversupressed kids dont grow, and undersuppressed grow like wildfire.  I think the link is another hormone which was recently discovered called ghrelin. Ghrelin is an exogenous ligand of GH- meaning it stimulates GH production. Ghrelin also stimulates appetite- and where have we seen this before? Lots of parents with a kid taking lots of cortef or hydrocortisone complain of this little problem.  There’s only a couple of papers out there currently linking cortisol and ghrelin production- for example, in one experiment when mice were given ghrelin, their cortisol levels increased. I find it fascinating, however, that no one has looked to see if increasing cortisol levels increase ghrelin.

I’m doing some work with ghrelin in the lab and I’m dying to get permission from my professor let me try this out. *DYING* But I feeling like I’ve hijaked the thread so I’m signing out. Sorry Louise!

Martha