Obesity Research & Clinical Practice (2014) 8, e55—e62 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Biphasic response of subscapular skinfold thickness to hGH or IGF-1 administration to patients with con- genital IGHD, congenital MPHD and Laron syndrome Orly Bisker-Kassif a,b , Rivka Kauli a,b , Pearl Lilos a,b , Zvi Laron a,b,* a Endocrinology and Diabetes Research Unit, Schneider Children’s Medical Center, 14 Kaplan Street, Petah Tikva 49202, Israel b Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel Received 9 August 2012 ; received in revised form 19 September 2012; accepted 10 November 2012 KEYWORDS Congenital GH/IGF-1 deficiency; IGHD; MPHD Laron syndrome; hGH treatment; IGF-1 treatment; Obesity; Skinfold thickness Summary Objective: To evaluate changes in adiposity in congenital GH/IGF-1 deficient children during hGH or IGF-1 treatment. Subjects and methods: 27 children with congenital isolated growth hormone defi- ciency (cIGHD) treated with hGH for 2.5—15.2 years (mean 10.0 ± 3.4), 18 children with congenital multiple pituitary hormone deficiency (cMPHD), treated with hGH for 2.3—17.9 years (mean 6.1 ± 4.3), and 14 children with Laron syndrome (LS) treated with IGF-1 for 1.2—12 years (mean 5.5 ± 3.7) were studied. Changes in the degree of adiposity were evaluated by subscapular skinfold thickness (SSFT), before, during and up to 2 years after treatment. All the children had various degrees of obesity. Results: During the pretreatment period, cIGHD patients showed little changes in SSFT (P = 0.45), cMPHD and LS patients showed an increase in SSFT (P = 0.01, P = 0.06 respectively). During the initial 0.6—1.1 years of hGH/IGF-1 treatment, the SSFT decreased in all 3 groups (P < 0.001), while during subsequent years a significant increase in SSFT (P < 0.001) was observed, in all types of patients, notably in females. Only the cIGHD patients demonstrated a significant correlation between the degree of SSFT decrease and height SDS gain (R = -0.56, P = 0.002) in the first period of treatment. ∗ Corresponding author at: Endocrinology and Diabetes Research Unit, Schneider Children’s Medical Center 14 Kaplan Street, Petah Tikva 49202, Israel. Tel.: +972 3 9253610/1; fax: +972 3 9222996. E-mail address: Laronz@clalit.org.il (Z. Laron). 1871-403X/$ — see front matter © 2013 Asian Oceanian Association for the Study of Obesity. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orcp.2012.11.001