Symposium on Growth: Endocrine Causes of Growth and Growth Stasis

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Abstract
This discussion concerns itself with those aspects of somatic growth which can be clearly ascribed to the action of the hypophyseal growth hormone, and will mention only briefly the action of other hormones which are probably involved in regulating body growth. An assumption, will be made, one which may not be wholly accepted by all, that the thyroid gland plays only a permissive role in the growth process. This assumption is based on the fact that all events involving cellular multiplication and growth occur at their optimal rates only in euthroid individuals, i.e. some somatic growth is possible in the thyroidectomized but none in the hypophysectomized animal (Simpson, et al., 1950). Conversely, optimal growth is impossible in the thyroidectomized animal even with an intact pituitary gland or in hypothyroid animals injected with exogenous growth hormone.