Growth hormone exerts acute vascular effects independent of systemic or muscle insulin-like growth factor I.

Context: Endothelial dysfunction is common in patients with GH deficiency who are at increased risk for premature cardiovascular death. GH regulates vascular tone and reactivity in humans.

Objective: Our objective was to explore the mechanisms underlying the GH's acute vascular effects. DESIGN AND STUDY SETTING: There were 10 healthy, lean and young, volunteers studied after an overnight fast. GH was infused systemically for 6 h at 0.06 microg/kg.min. Biopsy of the vastus lateralis muscle was done in seven subjects before and after GH infusion. Human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) were incubated with GH in vitro.

Results: GH infusion increased plasma GH to 32.9 +/- 1.5 ng/ml and forearm blood flow by 66% (P < 0.001). GH infusion did not significantly change plasma IGF-I concentrations, muscle IGF-I mRNA expression, and muscle Akt phosphorylation, suggesting a lack of IGF-I action in muscle. Because it was reported that GH exerts an acute vascular effect via a nitric oxide (NO)-dependent mechanism, we performed additional in vitro experiments using HAECs. HAECs express abundant GH receptors. Incubating HAECs with GH at 30 ng/ml for 3 or 6 h did not alter endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) protein content but time dependently increased the phosphorylation and activity of eNOS, thus demonstrating a direct effect of GH on endothelial cells.

Conclusions: GH exerts an acute vascular effect independent of both systemic and local IGF-I production, and this effect is likely via direct action on GH receptors and eNOS in the vascular endothelium.