The metabolic clearance of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) has been examined in sheep using a radioiodinated hormone preparation (131I-labelled IGF-I). Following i.v. administration, 131I-labelled IGF-I was distributed in a volume equivalent to plasma (60 ml whole blood/kg liveweight) and demonstrated a triphasic pattern of clearance with apparent half-lives (t 1/2) of 4.0 +/- 0.4 (S.E.M.), 52.4 +/- 3.4 and 792 +/- 26.5 min (n = 10). No significant differences in the t1/2 of the three phases were identified in fed compared with starved animals (fed, n = 4, phase 1 = 3.1 +/- 0.64, phase 2 = 46 +/- 5.9 and phase 3 = 756 +/- 27 min; starved, n = 6, phase 1 = 4.6 +/- 0.58, phase 2 = 57 +/- 3.2 and phase 3 = 816 +/- 38.5 min). Similarly, no significant differences in the distribution volume (fed, n = 4, 44 +/- 4 ml/kg live-weight; starved, n = 6, 39 +/- 2 ml/kg liveweight) or metabolic clearance rate (fed, n = 4, 2.9 +/- 0.15 ml/min; starved, n = 6, 3.2 +/- 0.5 ml/min) of the IGF-I were found in fed compared with starved animals. High-performance gel filtration chromatography of sequential plasma samples following injection of 131I-labelled IGF-I revealed three clear peaks of radioactivity which demonstrated markedly different patterns of clearance. These correspond to hormone complexed to binding proteins of 150,000 and 50,000 daltons and to 'free' hormone.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Five goats were injected with GH (15 mg/day), three goats received systemic infusions of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I (43 nmol/h) and four goats received systemic infusions of physiological saline (20 ml/h) on days 4-6 of a 10-day experimental period during mid-lactation. Milk yield increased by an average of 24% in GH-treated goats by the time of the third injection. In contrast, milk yield of IGF-I-infused goats did not differ from saline-infused animals although two of three goats did show a small increase (12%) after 36 h of IGF-I infusion. With GH and IGF-I treatments plasma IGF-I concentrations increased similarly, reaching maxima of 100-130 nmol/l within 24 h. Plasma IGF-I concentration was relatively constant in saline-infused goats at about 50 nmol/l throughout the experiment. Total IGF-I bound to 50 kDa and 150 kDa binding proteins in plasma was increased by GH and IGF-I treatments but, in contrast to IGF-I, GH increased the proportion of IGF-I bound to 150 kDa binding protein. In a second experiment, four goats received systemic infusion of IGF-I (43 nmol/h) and four goats received systemic infusion of physiological saline (20 ml/h). There was no evidence that milk yield was changed during IGF-I infusion. However, when those goats which had previously received IGF-I infusions were injected with GH, milk yield increased by 30%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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Recombinant human insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) was injected daily (4 or 8 mg/pig) as an intra-arterial bolus into pigs for 3 consecutive days and the serum IGF-I concentration was measured to determine disappearance profiles. IGF-I partitioned to a fast component (half-life, t_½ = 5.7 min) and a slow component (t_½ = 253 min) in pig serum. Chromatography of serum revealed that the fast component comprised unbound IGF-I, whereas the slow component comprised IGF-I bound to 40- and 150-kD serum IGF-binding proteins. In addition, administration of exogenous IGF-I caused significant hypoglycemia.

We compared two preparations of human insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I, one isolated from human plasma and the other prepared by recombinant DNA technology, for use in three radioimmunoassays and a radioreceptor assay for IGF-I, two radioreceptor assays for IGF-II, and a protein-binding assay for both IGFs. In the IGF-I assays, iodinated natural IGF-I consistently showed higher binding than did iodinated biosynthetic IGF-I, whether or not the iodopeptides were purified before use by hydrophobic interaction chromatography. Comparing the potency of the unlabeled peptides in the eight assay systems, we found the natural and the biosynthetic IGF-I to be equipotent in every case except for a radioimmunoassay involving a monoclonal IGF-I antibody (the synthetic peptide had 2.4 times greater activity), and an IGF-II radioreceptor assay involving ovine placental membrane receptors (the natural peptide had 10-fold greater activity). We conclude that recombinant DNA-derived IGF-I is suitable for use, both as a standard and as a radioligand, in a wide variety of IGF assays.