Several authors have demonstrated that plasma growth hormone (GH) levels as response to acute GH releasing hormone (GHRH) stimulation in adults are decreased by a previous GHRH injection whereas they are maintained in children. Probably the most accepted hypothesis for this finding is the increase in the somatostatinergic tone. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the dual GH response to repeated GHRH stimuli to clarify the possible influence of somatostatinergic activity in the type of response. Eighteen healthy prepubertal children, mean age 9.2 years (range: 6.0-12.9 years) and 19 healthy adult volunteers, mean age 25.5 years (range: 17-35 years) were studied with the GHRH test. An additional group of 10 normal adults with similar characteristics (mean age 31 years, range 25-35 years) were also recruited as a control group for somatostatinergic assessment. The GH response to the first GHRH bolus was similar in both children and adults. However, while children showed a preserved response to the second stimulus, it was diminished in adults. As expected, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) was within the normal range in all subjects. When the evolution of TSH was compared between the group of non-responders and the control group, no significant differences were found either at basal time or at 120 min, showing a similar decreasing trend for serum TSH level. The variation of TSH levels were also expressed as the proportion of TSH response after 2 hours compared to the basal level (TSH-120/TSH-0) but no significant differences were found (GHRH non-responders group mean: 73.6%, range: 51.3-93.7; control group mean: 70.7%, range: 62.9-92.5). In conclusion, the results confirm that in adults but not in children, the somatotrope responsiveness to GHRH is inhibited by a previous bolus of GHRH. The finding that the plasma TSH level diminishes in a similar manner in both non-responders and the control group is in agreement with the rejection of the hypothesis of the influence of somatostatin.