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Updated: Jul 16, 2025

Comparative Analysis of Human Growth Hormone in Serum Using SPRi, Nano-SPRi and ELISA Assays
Published on: January 7, 2016
Signaling mechanism of growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor
Gabor Halmos1, Zsuzsanna Szabo2, Eva Juhasz3
1Department of Biopharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary; Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Endocrine, Polypeptide and Cancer Institute, Miami, FL, United States.
Abstract:
The hypothalamic peptide growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) stimulates the secretion of growth hormone (GH) from the pituitary through binding and activation of the pituitary type of GHRH receptor (GHRH-R), which belongs to the family of G protein-coupled receptors with seven potential membrane-spanning domains. Splice variants of GHRH-Rs (SV) in human tumors and other extra pituitary tissues were identified and their cDNA was sequenced. Among the SVs, splice variant 1 (SV1) possesses the greatest similarity to the full-length GHRH-R and remains functional by eliciting cAMP signaling and mitogenic activity upon GHRH stimulation. A large body of work have evaluated potential clinical applications of agonists and antagonists of GHRH in diverse fields, including endocrinology, oncology, cardiology, diabetes, obesity, metabolic dysfunctions, Alzheimer's disease, ophthalmology, wound healing and other applications. In this chapter, we briefly review the expression and potential function of GHRH-Rs and their SVs in various tissues and also elucidate and summarize the activation, molecular mechanism and signalization pathways of these receptors. Therapeutic applications of GHRH analogs are also discussed.
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