Basic research on growth-promoting polypeptides and hypothalamic releasing factors receives special emphasis, particularly as these factors interact to influence normal growth and physiological development. Basic and clinical studies of the etiology and therapy of growth retardation are also supported. Major importance is placed on ascertaining the molecular basis of growth retardation in regard to the control of transcription and translation of growth factors, their binding proteins, and their receptors. Studies of transmembrane signalling in effector cells are also encouraged.
The Fels Longitudinal Study of Growth and Development has followed more than 1,400 individuals, who were enrolled at birth, beginning in 1930. The Fels Study provided growth data for the North American Standard Tables of Height and Weight, as well as for a comprehensive atlas of bone age and skeletal development. These standards are in widespread use in the United States and abroad. The Fels database is now being used to ascertain the origins of the metabolic syndrome in childhood, by examining childhood data of adults currently diagnosed with the metabolic syndrome (Sun et al 2004).
The Child Health and Development Study (CHDS) of 20,000 pregnancies began in 1959, as a companion to the Perinatal Collaborative Study. The NICHD provides support to maintain the CHDS database and serum collection. Investigators who are interested in maternal and placental origins of disease later in life currently use these resources, especially in the study of long-term effects of in utero exposure to organochlorines, such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane or DDT (Cohn et al 2003).
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