Failure of Human Growth Hormone to Benefit Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

To the Editor.—  Prudden et al¹ described increased wound tensile strength in rats treated with bovine growth hormone. Aloia and Grover² described improvement of the abnormally thin skin of five patients with osteoporosis treated with human growth hormone (hGH). The collagen bundles and elastic tissue fibers became hyperplastic and more horizontally oriented. There was proliferation of blood vessels, and increased numbers of mast cells and fibrocytes. Reports differ as to whether structural abnormalities do³ or do not⁴ occur in types I and II Ehlers-Danlos (ED) syndrome. In view of the lack of effective therapy for ED, a trial of hGH seemed reasonable.Hydroxyproline accumulation in subcutaneous wounds was determined by the use of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, Gore-Tex) tubing implanted subcutaneously in the outer arm, and removed at five and seven days,⁵ and is expressed as micrograms per centimeter of tubing. The seven-day value is regarded