We studied 12 healthy men >65 years old overnight for sleep and nocturnal GH secretory profiles, as well as for glucose tolerance,IGF-I,T, osteocalcin, lipid profiles, and bone biochemistries (urine pyridinoline cross-links, and calcium), body composition, muscle strength and utilization of high energy phosphate by NMR, all before and at the end of a regimen of GHRH 1-29 self-injected sc once nightly for 6 weeks. There was a significant increase in GH secretion after GHRH injections, in mean serum IGF-I levels, and in muscle strength and significant decreases in area under glucose tolerance curves and in LDL cholesterol, but no changes in triglycerides or HDL cholesterol and no apparent effect of treatment on body mass index, other anthropometric measures or measures of bone metabolism. A study of the effects of 6 months of treatment of 160 men and women >65 years with rhGH, sex steroid, both, or neither on multiple relevant clinical and physiologic end-points has been initiated and is ongoing.
