I heard of the case of Adam Rainer, where his apparent condition called “acromegaly” caused him to grow uncontrollably beyond adolescence. He was both a dwarf at 19 and a giant at 33. How is this possible if growth plates predetermine height?

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I’ve been wondering this for a pretty long time

In: Biology

13 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Acromegaly is a disease caused by a pituitary Tumor that leads to excessive secretion of Growth Hormone. This hormone does exactly what it sounds like.
But it may only make you grow larger than normal during puberty because at its end growth plates close and longitudinal growth can no longer happen. In adolescence, acromegaly is way more common than in puberty and has several serious adverse effects due to the growth hormone levels.

However, it is also possible that the underlying tumor is formed by a pituitary cell type that does not secrete growth hormone but thus suppresses its secretion. That way, one will develop a deficiency of the hormone that leads to short stature during puberty.
Such a tumor cannot transform into the other type, so that i expect this Adam Rainer may just have been short statured in a healthy way before he developed acromegaly.
There are also ‘idiopathic’ causes of these diseases, that mainly mean you have a genetic disorder. This could affect the structure of growth hormone for example. But it would be a complex interaction of such a genetic disorder and acromegaly. I will look this guy up later.

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