Pulsatile growth hormone secretion: suppression by hypothalamic ventromedial lesions and by long-acting somatostatin

Sequential blood samples, obtained from freely behaving, nonstressed male rats, showed a pulsatile pattern of growth hormone secretion with a mean interval between peaks of 68 minutes. The bursts of secretion were blocked by lesions of the hypothalamic ventromedial nuclei and by administration of a longacting preparation of synthetic somatostatin.