I am interested in the effects (if any) of human growth hormone supplementation on healing tendons. According to this study as well as others, HGH has strong positive effects on increasing collegen protein synthesis. However, what are your thoughts on HGH actually providing healing and repair to damaged tendons or inflamed tendons? In a real-world practical sense, can HGH or a secretagogue such as MK-677 promote healing of tendons, or does it simply help alleviate pain and temporarily decrease inflammation? As we know, AAS such as EQ, Deca, and Anavar can help eleviate joint pain through increased collegen I and III, but from my understanding do not actually heal or repair anything in a long-term sense. Can anyone point me to any larger scale studies? Most that I have found have been studies conducted on rats, or studies with very small human sample sizes (n<50). Does anyone with more knowledge and/or first-hand experience on this subject have anything to say? TIA
"A primary observation was that the GH/IGF-I axis appeared to be closely involved in regulation of the connective tissue supporting skeletal muscle. Administration of rhGH increased collagen I and III mRNA 2-fold in both tendon and muscle, and collagen protein FSR 1.3-fold and 6-fold in tendon and muscle, respectively."
"The major finding in the present study is that increased GH availability causes increased expression of collagen mRNA and also increased collagen protein synthesis in connective tissue in human skeletal muscle and tendon, but has no effect on myofibrillar protein synthesis. Moreover, it was demonstrated that serum IGF-I, as well as tissue IGF-I mRNA expression was related to serum GH titre. These findings demonstrate that GH caused a rise in matrix collagen synthesis of skeletal muscle and tendon, but did not reveal any effect on myofibrillar protein synthesis."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821728/
Doessing, S., Heinemeier, K. M., Holm, L., Mackey, A. L., Schjerling, P., Rennie, M., … Kjaer, M. (2010). Growth hormone stimulates the collagen synthesis in human tendon and skeletal muscle without affecting myofibrillar protein synthesis.*The Journal of Physiology,*588(Pt 2), 341–351. http://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2009.179325
"A primary observation was that the GH/IGF-I axis appeared to be closely involved in regulation of the connective tissue supporting skeletal muscle. Administration of rhGH increased collagen I and III mRNA 2-fold in both tendon and muscle, and collagen protein FSR 1.3-fold and 6-fold in tendon and muscle, respectively."
"The major finding in the present study is that increased GH availability causes increased expression of collagen mRNA and also increased collagen protein synthesis in connective tissue in human skeletal muscle and tendon, but has no effect on myofibrillar protein synthesis. Moreover, it was demonstrated that serum IGF-I, as well as tissue IGF-I mRNA expression was related to serum GH titre. These findings demonstrate that GH caused a rise in matrix collagen synthesis of skeletal muscle and tendon, but did not reveal any effect on myofibrillar protein synthesis."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821728/
Doessing, S., Heinemeier, K. M., Holm, L., Mackey, A. L., Schjerling, P., Rennie, M., … Kjaer, M. (2010). Growth hormone stimulates the collagen synthesis in human tendon and skeletal muscle without affecting myofibrillar protein synthesis.*The Journal of Physiology,*588(Pt 2), 341–351. http://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2009.179325