Abstract
Patients with chronic liver disease have low insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels, but it is not known whether this is secondary to primary hepatic dysfunction and/or to malnutrition. In order to distinguish between these possibilities, serum and liver IGF-1 concentrations and liver IGF-1 mRNA content were compared in three groups of Sprague-Dawley rats; fifteen rats underwent bile duct obstruction (OP); 10 rats were sham-operated and pair-fed with OP rats (PF) to control for nutritional status; and 12 rats were sham-operated controls fed ad libitum (CON). Serum and liver were extracted and assayed by RIA using an antibody that recognizes rat IGF-1 (gift of L.Underwood). Liver ICF-1 mRNA content was measured by dot blot hybridization using a cDNA probe, quantitated by videodensitometry and expressed as a percent of internal control RNA values (adult rat pool). In addition, IGF-1 peptide and mRNA were compared with food intake, nitrogen balance, total weight gain, tail length increase and leg muscle weight. All the parameters were found significantly lower (p<0.001) in OP and PF animals than in CON animals. In the 10 paired OP and PF animals serum and hepatic IGF-1 and liver IGF-1 mRNA Values were not significantly different, despite lower nitrogen balance, tail length gain, and leg muscle weight in the OP animals. For all animals, there was a significant correlation (p<0.001) between serum IGF-1 levels and food intake (r=0.84), liver IGF-1 levels (r=0.64), and liver IGF-1 mRNA (r=0.89). These studies suggest that in chronic bile duct obstruction, the low serum and hepatic IGF-1 levels are primarily due to decreased food intake and appear unrelated to cholestatic liver disease itself. Decreased IGF-1 synthesis is the most probable cause of these low levels. However, factors other than suboptimal nutrition and decreased IGF-1 levels must also contribute to cholestasis-induced growth failure in this animal model.
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Descos, B., Berry, S., Pescovitz, O. et al. NUTRITIONAL INTAKE, ICF-1 LEVEL AND GROWTH FAILURE IN CHOLESTATIC RATS. Pediatr Res 26, 279 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198909000-00094
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198909000-00094