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Nuffield Institute for Medical Research and Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, 0X3 9DU

(Received 6 April 1978)

Growth hormone (GH) has been located in the ovine foetal pituitary gland by day 50 of gestation (Stokes & Boda, 1968). The concentration of GH in the plasma of foetal sheep is ten times higher than the postnatal value, increasing from 40 ng/ml on day 100 of gestation to 100–120 ng/ml on day 140 (Bassett, Thorburn & Wallace, 1970). After foetal hypophysectomy, the concentration of GH falls to < 2 ng/ml, indicating that it originates in the foetal pituitary gland (Wallace, Stacey & Thorburn, 1973). Labelled GH does not cross the ovine placenta (Wallace et al. 1973). After sectioning the foetal pituitary stalk, the concentration of GH in the foetal plasma drops to approximately 5 ng/ml (Wallace et al. 1973), which implies that the secretion of GH