The effect of anterior hypophyseal growth hormone on epiphyseal closure in the third metacarpal of normal female rats

✍ Scribed by Asling, C. Willet ;Becks, Hermann ;Simpson, Miriam E. ;Li, Choh Hao ;Evans, Herbert M.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1948
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 443 KB
• Volume: 101
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-276X
• DOI: 10.1002/ar.1091010106

✦ Synopsis

Studies of the effects of anterior hypophpseal growth hormone on epiphyseal closure in the rat have only recently become possible, through the availabilitj-of pure preparations of this hormone (Li, Evans and Simpson, '45), and through standardization of the third metacarpal of the normal rat as a test bone for such experiments (Becks, Asling, Collins, Simpson and Evans, '48). The questions at issue in such a study are as follows: (1) Does growth hormone cause continued elongation of the metacarpal after it has reached its definitive length? (2) Does growth hormone have sufficient chondrotrophia activity to maintain an epiphyseal cartilage plate and delay the bone's epiphpseal closure? (3) Or does excessive growth imposed on a bone by growth hormone exhaust rapidly the capacity of the bone to grow and even result in premature epiphyseal closure?