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.
Lord AP,
Bastian SE,
Read LC,
Walton PE,
Ballard FJ.
Child Health Research Institute, North Adelaide, South Australia.
"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
LR3IGF-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 LR3IGF-I binding"
less binding,more powerful.