Growth hormone releasing hormone

How was GHRH discovered and what does it do?

In 1982, researchers isolated "a 44 amino acid peptide with growth hormone-releasing activity" from a human pancreatic tumor that had caused acromegaly, and found its synthetic replicate had "full biological activity in vitro and in vivo" to stimulate growth hormone secretion [1]. FDA's label for the approved analog tesamorelin describes GHRH, also called growth hormone-releasing factor, as "a hypothalamic peptide that acts on the pituitary somatotroph cells to stimulate the synthesis and pulsatile release of endogenous growth hormone (GH), which is both anabolic and lipolytic" [2].

What are GHRH's synthetic analogs?

Sermorelin, or GHRH 1-29, covers the first 29 amino acids of the sequence [4]. Tesamorelin keeps the full 44-amino-acid sequence and adds a hexenoyl chain, and is FDA-approved as Egrifta WR for HIV-associated lipodystrophy [2]. CJC-1295 is a synthetic analog "designed to stimulate pituitary GH secretion and secondarily increase circulating IGF-1"; its own entry covers FDA's record of its withdrawn nomination [4]. A 2026 review describes GHRH analogs as a class "designed to stimulate endogenous GH secretion by activating the pituitary GHRH receptor, thereby increasing GH pulsatility and secondarily IGF-1" [4]. Growth hormone-releasing factors, including these analogs, are prohibited at all times under the 2026 WADA list [3].