The nonhuman primate as a model of growth hormone physiology in the human being

Over the last three decades investigators have provided an exponential increase in our knowledge of the mechanisms controlling primate GH secretion and action. Starting from (1) the first demonstration of the efficacy of primate GH in promoting growth in GHdeficient human beings, continuing through (2) the advent of RIAs that greatly simplified the measurement of GH and (3) allowed a profusion of physiological studies of GH secretion, proceeding to (4) the realization of the importance of intermediary growth factors in accomplishing the ultimate effects of GH, and arriving at (5) the isolation of the hypothalamic factors regulating GH secretion and (6) the cloning of the genes for GH and its regulators, this field of study has matured at a rapid rate. Much of the information has been obtained from clinical studies in human beings, but animal studies have been instrumental in many areas where human studies are ethically or practically impossible.