Plasma growth hormone and prolactin response to dopaminergic GABAmimetic and cholinergic stimulation in Huntington’s disease

R. Durso, C. A. Tamminga, A. Denaro, S. Ruggeri, T. N. Chase

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

We studied the acute effects of pharmacologic stimulation of neurotransmitter systems implicated in growth hormone and prolactin regulation in eight patients with Huntington’s disease and matched control subjects. Both apomorphine, a dopamine agonist, and muscimol, a GABA agonist, produced an exaggerated rise in plasma growth hormone levels in the Huntington patients. Neither the growth hormone response to a muscarinic agonist, arecoline, nor the prolactin response to any of these drugs differed in the patients and controls. Loss of somatostatin activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis in Huntington’s disease could account for these endocrinologic changes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1229-1232
Number of pages4
JournalNeurology
Volume33
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1983

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Neurology

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