The serum concentrations of a specific GH-binding protein, derived from the GH receptor, were assayed in sera from 62 African pygmies and 101 normal statured controls. Samples were assayed in the absence and presence of excess GH using 2 separatory procedures. Interassay variability for samples was corrected by a standard reference pool of sera from adults assayed with all unknown samples. Results were expressed as specific binding relative to this standard. The mean percent relative specific binding for GH increased with age in normal-statured controls throughout childhood and adolescence. Relative specific binding for GH was 37.0 +/- 2.0% (mean +/- SEM) in control subjects between the ages of 1-5 yr (mean age, 2.9 yr) and increased progressively to 93.0 +/- 7.0% in young adults (mean age, 23 yr). The relative specific binding of GH by serum from pygmies did not exceed 30.1 +/- 3.4% of the control adult standard at any age period (P less than 0.001), and there was no progressive age-related increase in binding. The decrease from normal binding was minimal in pygmies during childhood (29%), but the decrease from normal was 60-70% in adolescents and adults. Thus, short stature in pygmies probably results not from an absolute deficiency of GH receptors per se, as in Laron dwarfism, but from a failure of cellular GH receptors to increase in a normal manner. This is most compatible with a change in regulating expression of the GH receptor gene, rather than a structural defect in the coding sequence of the GH receptor gene.