The History of Growth Hormone Therapy for Turner Syndrome

It is of note that the first documented use of "growth hormone" (GH) in Turner syndrome (TS) was in Henry Turner's 1938 report of the syndrome that bears his name (1, 2).Reportedly, in one patient, "anterior pituitary growth hormone, 2cc. 3 times weekly, was prescribed, and injections were continued for approximately 5 months without any appreciable increase in her height (1)."It is not clear what precisely was administered to this 18-year-old patient, although it is certainly unlikely that the crude pituitary extract was of human origin, and, in retrospect, not surprising that "no appreciable increase" in growth was observed.The initial purification of human GH from