The present invention pertains to a method for decreasing the body fatproportion, increasing lean body mass ("LBM"), increasing bone density, orimproving the rate of bone healing, or all, of a subject. Overall, theembodiments of the invention can be accomplished by delivering a heterologousnucleic acid sequence encoding GHRH or functional biological equivalentthereof into the cells of the subject and allowing expression of the encodedgene to occur while the modified cells are within the subject. For instance,when such a nucleic acid sequence is delivered into the specific cells of thesubject tissue specific constitutive expression is achieved. Furthermore,external regulation of the GHRH or functional biological equivalent thereofgene can be accomplished by utilizing inducible promoters that are regulatedby molecular switch molecules, which are given to the subject. The preferredmethod to deliver the constitutive or inducible nucleic acid encodingsequences of GHRH or the functional biological equivalents thereof is directlyinto the cells of the subject by the process of in vivo electroporation. Adecrease the body fat proportion and an increase in lean body mass ("LBM"), orboth of a subject is achieved by the delivery of GHRH or functional biologicalequivalent thereof as described herein by into the subject as recombinantproteins. In addition, an increase in bone density and improvement in the rateof bone healing is also achieved.
