Human growth hormone may improve quadriceps strength after ACL reconstruction
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Patients who received human growth hormone before and after ACL reconstruction had improved quadriceps strength and a reduced risk of osteoarthritis, according to study results.
Christopher L. Mendias, PhD, ATC, associate scientist at Hospital for Special Surgery, and colleagues randomly assigned 19 men undergoing ACL reconstruction to receive human growth hormone (n=10) or placebo (n=9) twice daily 1 week before surgery and continued through 5 weeks after surgery. Researchers measured knee muscle strength and volume, patient-reported outcome scores and circulating biomarkers at several time points through 6 months after surgery. Researchers evaluated differences between treatment groups and time points using mixed-effects models.
Results showed no differences in adverse events between the human growth hormone and placebo groups. Researchers found a 2.1-fold increase in circulating insulin-like growth factor 1 among patients in the human growth factor group during the course of the treatment period. The human growth hormone group had a 29% increase in normalized peak isokinetic knee extension torque, the primary outcome measure, vs. the placebo group, according to results. Researchers also noted patients who received human growth hormone had lower matrix metalloproteinase–3 by 36%, which was used as an indirect biomarker of cartilage degradation. Results showed changes in muscle volume or patient-reported outcome scores did not appear to be associated with human growth hormone.
“[Human growth hormone] HGH could potentially be used to safely improve strength and prevent the onset of osteoarthritis after injury,” Mendias told Healio Orthopedics. “While we have focused our work on ACL tears, it is likely this work is applicable to other traumatic joint injuries or fractures where patients are immobilized for prolonged periods of time.” – by Casey Tingle
Collapse
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts