Injecting healthy children with human growth hormone does not make them taller, a team of Italian researchers has found. The work, led by Sandro Loche at the Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico in Rome, raises further doubts about the suspected, widespread use of growth hormone to increase the height of healthy children who happen to be short.
Many countries, including Britain and the US, have approved growth hormone for treating children who cannot produce enough hormone naturally. But critics accuse the drug's manufacturers of quietly coaxing doctors and parents to use the drug on short children who have no hormonal abnormalities (This Week, 20 August). The manufacturers deny this charge.
The Italian researchers used standard methods to estimate the natural height that 15 short children with normal levels of growth hormone would reach. The children were then treated with growth hormone for five years. They grew faster ...
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