EFFECT OF SOMATOSTATIN ON THE CONCENTRATION OF GROWTH HORMONE IN THE PLASMA OF FOETAL SHEEP

Abstract
Nuffield Institute for Medical Research and Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, 0X3 9DU (Received 6 April 1978) Growth hormone (GH) has been located in the ovine foetal pituitary gland by day 50 of gestation (Stokes & Boda, 1968). The concentration of GH in the plasma of foetal sheep is ten times higher than the postnatal value, increasing from 40 ng/ml on day 100 of gestation to 100–120 ng/ml on day 140 (Bassett, Thorburn & Wallace, 1970). After foetal hypophysectomy, the concentration of GH falls to < 2 ng/ml, indicating that it originates in the foetal pituitary gland (Wallace, Stacey & Thorburn, 1973). Labelled GH does not cross the ovine placenta (Wallace et al. 1973). After sectioning the foetal pituitary stalk, the concentration of GH in the foetal plasma drops to approximately 5 ng/ml (Wallace et al. 1973), which implies that the secretion of GH

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