PLASMA LEVEL OF GROWTH HORMONE AND CHROMOSOME COMPLEMENT IN FOUR PATIENTS WITH GONADAL DYSGENESIS (TURNER'S SYNDROME)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Elevated levels of growth hormone (GH) were found in the plasma of four patients with Turner's syndrome. The somatic chromosome complement of these patients was determined by using a cell culture method. Bone marrow cells from three patients had 45 chromosomes instead of the normal number of 46. The missing chromosome is all probability one of the two X chromosomes. These subjects have therefore a sex chromosome constitution of the XO type. The fourth patient had a complement of 45 chromosomes in the skin cells but in bone marrow cultures cells with 45 and 46 chromosomes were found. During successive transfers in vitro the cells with 46 chromosomes outnumbered those with 45. It is assumed that in these patients the production of growth hormone by the pituitary gland is normal but a target system, as yet unidentified, is defective or absent.