Introduction: Discovery of growth hormone and synthesis of recombinant human growth hormone

The most famous likely growth hormone (GH)-deficient individual was Charles S. Stratton (born February 4, 1838), nicknamed General Tom Thumb by P.T. Barnum who discovered him at age of 10. He was born to parents of normal height who were first cousins. His birth weight was nine and a half pounds, and he grew steadily until age 18 months. Thereafter, he grew poorly and had delayed puberty, growing several inches in his late twenties; he achieved an adult height of only 3 ft 2 in. He married Lavinia Warren Bump (born October 31, 1842) on February 10, 1863, in a highly publicized affair. Ms. Bump had grown normally until age 1 year but then only slowly, until cessation of growth at age 10 years and achieving an adult height of 2 ft 8 in. Her parents were third cousins of normal height. Due to their proportionate short stature, normal birth length and weight, growth retardation starting late in the first year of life, normal intelligence, and normal sexual development, it is assumed that both Stratton and Bump had autosomal recessive growth hormone (GH) deficiency [1, 2].