Growth hormone heterogeneity: genes, isohormones, variants, and binding proteins.

Abstract excerpt

Human GH represents a family of proteins rather than a single hormone. The circulation contains a bewildering array of GH forms, including several monomeric variants, their homo- and heteropolymers, fragments, and complexes with at least two BPs. The net biological activity of this mixture is difficult to predict, as the various molecular forms interact as partial agonists and/or antagonists at the receptor...

Topics

• Amino Acid Sequence
• Animals
• Carrier Proteins
• Female
• Gene Expression
• Genetic Variation
• Growth Hormone
• Humans
• Molecular Sequence Data
• Peptide Fragments
• Placenta