Corticotropin-releasing hormone in humans.

I. A Brief History of Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone (CRH) and Vasopressin as Mediators of Pituitary-Adrenal Activation in Humans HARRIS' 1948 hypothesis (1) that anterior pituitary function is regulated by hypothalamic factors released into and carried by the hypothalamic-hypophysial portal blood to the adenohypophysis was not lost upon clinical investigators. Soon thereafter G. W. Liddle, for example, referred to this regulatory influence of the central nervous system as the “pituitary driving mechanism” (2), recognizing that such a mechanism was essential for explaining the diurnal rhythm in pituitary-adrenal axis function and its response to stress. According to this concept, the pituitary driving mechanism was the variable force against which cortisol exerted its negative feedback inhibitory action on ACTH secretion. Long before CRH [ovine CRH (oCRH) mol wt = 4671; human CRH (hCRH) mol wt = 4758] was isolated, characterized, and synthesized (3), vasopressin [either arginine vasopressin (AVP) or lysi...