Insulin-like growth factor-I induces hypertrophy with enhanced expression of muscle specific genes in cultured rat cardiomyocytes.

Abstract

BACKGROUNDCardiac hypertrophy is commonly observed in acromegalic patients, in whom serum insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) levels are elevated. In the present study, we examined whether IGF-I induces hypertrophy in cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes through its specific receptor and whether IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), which is a major circulating carrier protein for IGF-I, inhibits IGF-I-induced cardiac hypertrophy in vitro.METHODS AND RESULTSBecause the response of cardiac hypertrophy is characterized by the induction of expression for muscle-specific genes, the effect of IGF-I on steady-state levels of mRNA for myosin light chain-2 (MLC-2) and troponin I and for skeletal and cardiac alpha-actin isoforms was evaluated by Northern blot analysis. IGF-I (10(-7) M) increased mRNA levels for MLC-2 and troponin I as early as 60 minutes with maximum levels by 6 hours, which were maintained for as long as 24 hours. IGF-I (10(-7) M) also increased transcripts for skeletal alpha-actin but not for cardia...