Effect of growth hormone-releasing stimuli in streptozotocin diabetic rats.

The dynamics of growth hormone (GH) secretion in response to different GH secretagogues has been studied in adult freely moving male rats one month after induction of diabetes by single i.v. injection of streptozotocin (60 mg/kg). Baseline plasma GH concentrations and pituitary GH content were not different in streptozotocin-diabetic (St-D) rats and controls. Clonidine (0.15 mg/kg i.v.), an alpha 2-adrenergic agonist, failed to evoke GH release in St-D rats. Substitution therapy with insulin (1 IU/100 g b.wt.daily) delivered through subcutaneously implanted minipumps, allowed re-institution of a normal GH responsiveness to clonidine. At odds with clonidine, FK 33-824 (0.1 mg/kg i.v.), a potent analog of the opioid peptide Met-enkephalin, induced a similar rise in plasma GH levels in control and St-D rats. Finally, administration of a synthetic replicate of a GH-releasing hormone of human pancreatic origin, hpGRF-40 (2.5 micrograms/kg i.v.) elicited a higher GH response in St-D rats than in controls. These data indicate that in St-D rats: (1) an impaired function of noradrenergic pathways controlling GH release is present; (2) contrary to previous beliefs, an alpha 2-adrenergic mechanism is not involved in the GH-releasing effect of opioid peptides; and (3) pituitary GH responsiveness to hpGRF is increased.