Question: What is growth hormone testing?
Answer: Growth hormone testing is the biochemical analysis of growth hormone, its isoforms and fragments.
Growth hormone (GH or HGH) is also known as somatotropin or somatropin. It is a peptide or protein hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction and regeneration in mammals including humans.
Human growth hormone is used as a precription drug in medicine to treat children's growth disorders and adult growth hormone deficiency.
As an anabolic agent, this hormone has been used and abused by competitors in sports, at least since 1982. It is now banned.
It can only be detected in blood using analytical tests that allow to determine the nature of isoforms that may be present.
The major isoform of the human growth hormone is a protein of 191 amino acids and has a molecular weight of 22,124 daltons.