Differences in the association of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and IGF-I variants with rat, sheep, pig, human and chicken plasma-binding proteins

Abstract Associations between labelled insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) and IGF-binding proteins in plasma have been compared in the rat, sheep, human, pig and chicken. The IGFs tested were recombinant human IGF-I, the truncated variant, des(1–3)IGF-I, and LR 3 IGF-I, an extended form that had been engineered so as to minimize interactions with IGF-binding proteins. Marked species differences were demonstrated, notably that the IGF-I variants which exhibited extremely weak binding in rat plasma bound significantly in plasma from the other species. This result was shown both by size-exclusion chromatography of labelled IGFs added to plasma, in which the extent of variant IGF-I binding decreased in the order sheep>human>pig=chicken>rat, and by competition for labelled IGF-I binding in vitro , in which the order was pig=chicken>sheep>human>rat. Notwithstanding these differences, the two IGF-I variants showed only slight between-species binding differences when tested with purified rat, sheep and human IGF-binding protein-3. Ligand blotting experiments with plasma from the five species similarly showed a consistent pattern in that IGF-I binding was much greater than des(1–3)IGF-I binding, which in turn was greater than LR 3 IGF-I binding. These experiments suggest first that IGF-binding properties measured after the removal of endogenous IGFs do not always reflect the situation with untreated plasma or in vivo , and secondly, the increased potencies of des(1–3)IGF-I and LR 3 IGF-I in rat growth studies that have been ascribed to higher concentrations of these peptides in the free form cannot necessarily be extended to other species. Journal of Endocrinology (1994) 140, 475–482