Igf1 - alec: Difference between revisions

The role of IGF-1 includes a large part in growth of tissues throughout the body, but in the cases of insufficient levels of this protein, the body cannot produce the standard amount of growth experienced by most people. While complications with this protein are relatively rare, the effects of deficiencies in IGF-1 are substantial. When people cannot organically produce Growth Hormone, the term '''Laron Syndrome''' (LS) is given to describe their condition and is an extremely rare diagnosis.  Because of their inability to produce GH, there is a correlation with the inability to generate IGF-1 that prevents the body from being able to produce the growth that it needs throughout life. Newborns for instance, if born with LS, are slightly shorter than healthy newborns. Throughout childhood, the child will show a wide range of symptoms. Growth impairment symptoms may include a lack of skeletal maturation, and organ growth including a smaller brain, cardiomicria (small heart), acromicria (small facial, hand and feet bones due to underdevelopment). LS also causes potential for a weakened muscular system which can result in damaged and weakened hair and nails. If left untreated throughout their life, subjects with LS develop dwarfism causing their final height to be between 100 and 145 centimeters, with a highly unproportional upper body to a smaller lower body. However, with treatment, teams have been able to increase the average growth per year in patients with LS. One study showed that daily injections of IGF-1 that is identical to the patient’s own can nearly double the growth of patients in the first year compared to those untreated. The following two years also bring increased growth compared to untreated patients, but not only around 1.5 times. After treatment concluded, some parties reported their patients as reaching a normal final height for their age <ref name = 'Laron'> PMID: 11577173 </ref>. Another study on mice showed very similar results upon the intervention of the IGF-1 present in prenatal development. This study showed that as the IGF-1 protein levels are decreased, the weight of the mice upon birth were between sixty and forty-five percent of normal weight of the wild type mice. However, upon intervention on GH during prenatal development, mice with reduced GH were birthed with normal weights <ref name = 'Velloso'> PMID: 18500379 </ref>. These studies show the impact of IGF-1 in the early stages of development and speaks to its importance for growth throughout human life. Although LS is an extremely rare disorder where the body does not organically produce GH of IGF-1, low levels of GH and IGF-1 are much more common in society and have their own treatment options.