This short communication aims at calling for much more attention to proportions in secretion of various hormones, comparing them with proportionality of several functional parameters including somatic growth. The overview of our own data on proportions of human and animal growth is performed, outlining important role of some irrational numbers (Φ and S) in their interpretation.

At present it is already well known that hormonal secretion in general occurs in pulsatile or episodic manner designated also as homeokinetic or homeodynamic mode constituting ultradian hormonal rhythms, i.e. with the period of oscillations less than 24 h (see discussion in [1]). However, there exists great variablility of such rhythms. For example, pulsatility of pituitary hormones takes place approximately every 1-3 h, whereas for insulin the episodic secretion is much more frequent, about several minutes for each cycle.

The logical question emerges: what exactly governs the adjustrment of several ultradian hormonal biorhythms with each other, and is this adjusting process can be decoded in some sort of ruling? In order to approach the solution of this rather complicated problem, we shall employ some rather scarce data on proportionality of hormone-dependent processes, focusing primarily on proportions of somatic growth, since we have already been involved in their exploration for some time.

Proportionality of human and animal growth:

What is the explanation for it via hormonal control?

In order to perform such investigation, since 1996 [2, 3] we have elaborated the protocol for evaluation of human linear growth, using the system of acupuncture channels (meridians) and points [4, 5]. The study occured in two phases: at first we evaluated human growth from 4 to 20 y of age, and thereafter from birth to 4 y [6]. The system of linear measurements focused principally on body members (or extremities), since it was possible to perform evaluation along 3 parallel channels on each member [7, 8].

                It is important to outline three essential advantages of such protocol:

1. in contrast to sporadic studies performed in anthropometry only on one linear segment, our protocol explores human growth in systemic mode;
2. the same protocol can be used in animals of rather big size, such as dogs [9], because of virtually complete correspondence of acupuncture channels and points both in humans and in several animals evaluated in veterinary medicine [10], although the reasons of this correspondence are not clear till the present moment;
3. finally, if it is possible to understand the rules governing human and animal growth proportionality, then it will be pertinent to use them for constructing virtual models used in informatics, including various computer applications [11].

Previously we were able to establish that relations between different segments of human body tend to be close to derivatives of irrational numbers characterizing golden section (Φ=1.618...) and some others (S=1,324...) [12, 13]. What about hormonal regulation?

Proportionality of hormonal secretion

For a long time the only principles governing hormonal regulation were based on negative and positive feedback functioning. However, the evaluation of pulsatile secretion of several hormones clearly shows the sequential release of, e.g., adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and cortisol in hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, thus complicating enormously the conventional explanation of such data via feedback principles only.

Therefore, we propose that much more attetion should be attracted to proportions between the release of several hormones, for example, growth hormone (GH) and glucocorticoids that respectively stimulates and inhibit somatic growth [14]. Of course, such evaluation should be performed in various periods of human and animal ontogeny [15, 16].

Conclusion

Pulsatile hormonal secretion suggests saltatory human and animal growth (see discussion in [1]), but their proportionality continues to be poorly understood. The main problem to be solved, on our opinion, is the necessity of simultaneous evaluation of several hormones, together with measurements of various functional parameters at the same time, with subsequent mathematical modeling and computer simulation of both hormonal and functional entities in rhythmic mode.