Insulin-like growth factors and their binding proteins before and after weight loss and their associations with hormonal and metabolic parameters in obese adolescent girls.

Abstract

These studies of a homogeneous group of patients give further insight into possible physiological regulations and roles of IGFs and IGFBPs. The main conclusion is that obesity has to be considered for interpretation of serum concentrations of IGF-I, IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2, and IGFBP-3. Furthermore, out results suggest that (i) the decrease in IGF-I/IGFBP-3 after weight loss could be partly responsible for the impaired growth velocity seen in obese children during hypocaloric feeding and (ii) low IGFBP-2 and high IGFBP-1 levels are associated with an unfavorable atherogenic risk factor profile.