title: Catch-up growth: cellular and molecular mechanisms.
abstract: In mammals, after a period of growth inhibition, body growth often does not just return to a normal rate but actually exceeds the normal rate, resulting in catch-up growth. Recent evidence suggests that catch-up growth occurs because growth-inhibiting conditions delay progression of the physiological mechanisms that normally cause body growth to slow and cease with age. As a result, following the period of growth inhibition, tissues retain a greater proliferative capacity than normal, and therefore grow more rapidly than normal for age. There is evidence that this mechanism contributes both to catch-up growth in terms of body length, which involves proliferation in the growth plate, and to catch-up growth in terms of organ mass, which involves proliferation in multiple nonskeletal tissues.
authors: Centro de Investigaciones Endocrinológicas (CEDIE-CONICET), División de Endocrinología, Hospital de Niños Dr. Ricardo Gutiérrez, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors: G P
authors: GP
authors: Finkielstain
authors: J C
authors: JC
authors: Lui
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Baron
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001827:Body Height; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D019902:Chondrocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D006132:Growth Plate / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development*; D006801:Humans; D023421:Models, Animal