One of the fields where significant breakthroughs are expected is one where important breakthroughs have already taken place - in the field of hormones.

We have seen, for example, that much work on HGH is still being done, with more data accumulating all the time. For example, it is now known that hormones, including HGH, may regulate the telomerase gene to produce telomerase.

Some of the current research involves raising HGH levels by use of growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH).

Other research has to do with Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), the physiological successor of HGH. It is in the form of IGF-1, we will recall, that HGH does much of its work at the various receptor sites in the body.

But IGF-1 is only one of many growth factors being investigated. Other growth factors being looked at today, some of which consist of strings of peptides, produce a wide variety of effects throughout the body. As more work is done with them, we may see them being used in such wide ranging applications as rejuvenating cells damaged by trauma, or in treating burns and ulcers, or in regenerating nerve cells.

Research is also going on in the area of secretogogues, the thrust being to come up with an even more efficient one for the future, but this may prove difficult. One group of substances that shows some promise in this regard consists of growth hormone releasing peptides. Two of these, GHRP 6 and its successor GHRP 2, have shown that they are very effective at stimulating raised levels of growth hormone.