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Free insulin-like growth factor I: are we hunting a ghost?
1Pediatric Endocrinology Unit, Department of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska Institute, Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. peter.bang@kbh.ki.se
Abstract:
During the last decade, there has been an increasing number of publications reporting concentrations of free dissociable insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) in serum or plasma. The goal for attempting to measure free IGF-I in a serum sample in vitro has been to obtain information about the bioactivity of IGF-I in target tissues, and thus relate a measurable parameter to biological responses such as longitudinal growth or glucose disappearance rate. In this review, the serum free IGF-I approach is placed into a physiological perspective. In addition, methodological aspects are discussed and suggestions for the validation of free IGF-I assays are presented.