NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Treatment of young cystic fibrosis patients with recombinant human growth hormone (rGH) prompts a significant increase in lean body mass, Swiss researchers report in the December issue of the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
As lead investigator Dr. Andreas Schibler told Reuters Health, “cystic fibrosis patients may get into a vicious circle of decreased respiratory function, malnutrition, muscle weakness and loss of energy. Treatment with growth hormone may break up this circle and help them to regain energy to improve their respiratory function.”
Dr. Schibler, who is currently at Mater Children’s Hospital, South Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues at the University of Bern, note that because “rGH has become an important (and abused) drug to enhance endurance and exercise capacity in athletics, it is tempting to investigate this effect in patients with lean body mass deficiency.”
To do so, the researchers randomized 20 cystic fibrosis patients aged 10 to 23 years to treatment or control groups. Patients in the treatment group received daily subcutaneous injection of 1 IU per kg per week of rGH over the course of a year.
The treatment did not improve weight or pulmonary function, but lean body mass increased significantly. Furthermore, exercise capacity rose “moderately” from a mean workload of 143 W at baseline to 164 W after 12 months.
The researchers call for larger studies to confirm these results, in particular, to justify “such an expensive treatment.”
Source: Arch Dis Child 2003;88:1078-1081. [ Google search on this article ]
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