Growth hormone is a stimulating but not an essential factor in healing of colon. A study in GH-deficient dwarf rats.

BACKGROUND:Growth hormone (GH) has been implicated as an important factor in the healing and previous studies showed significant strength acceleration of experimental intestinal anastomoses. AIM:To study the healing of experimental colonic anastomoses in GH-deficient rats and to study the potential physiological effects of GH-substitution on healing parameters. CONCLUSION:Exogenous rhGH treatment started 7 days prior to surgery and continued until day 4 postoperatively accelerates the strength development of the experimental colonic anastomoses in dwarf rats indicating a potent role of growth hormone in colonic healing. However, GH is not essential in the healing process, since anastomotic healing in GH-deficient dwarf rats is like rats with normal pituitary function.