OBJECTIVES: Low-dose growth hormone (GH) administration has been suggested as a treatment for HIV-lipodystrophy. METHODS: Postglucose GH-secretion, kinetics of insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), insulin, and glucose metabolism were examined in six male HIV-infected lipodystrophic patients (two normal-weight patients with normal glucose-tolerance (NGT), two normal-weight with impaired glucose-tolerance (IGT), and two obese patients with diabetes (DM)) during a 16 weeks open-labelled pilot-study of low-dose GH, 0.7 mg/day. RESULTS: DM, compared to NGT and IGT, displayed an impaired rebound of GH during a 5h oral glucose-tolerance test. Near lower normal limits in all patients before GH-therapy, total and free IGF-I increased between 87 and 152% during the GH-therapy (P<0.001), approaching upper normal limits in all patients with the highest incremental percentages shown in DM. A slight and temporary reduction in insulin sensitivity was caused by a reduction in non-oxidative glucose metabolism (n=5). GH-administration reduced hepatic extraction of insulin alleviating the demand for insulin secretion (n=5). No adverse effects of GH were detected. CONCLUSIONS: As judged from effects on circulating IGF-I, glucose metabolism, and insulin kinetics, 0.7 mg/day of GH may be expedient for treatment of HIV-infected males with lipodystrophy. Whether the patients' glucose metabolic status matters for the IGF-response to low-dose GH-therapy awaits further investigation.