Effects of passive immunization of growing guinea-pigs with an insulin-like growth factor-I monoclonal antibody

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Abstract
The physiological importance of circulating as opposed to locally produced insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) has not been determined. By using a passive immunoneutralization technique, our objectives were to evaluate the role of circulating IGF-I in the regulation of animal growth and pituitary GH content. A monoclonal antibody (MAb) to IGF-I, generated in our laboratory, has an affinity (Ka) of 0·13 litres/pmol for recombinant human IGF-I (rhIGF-I). Cross-reactivities of recombinant des-tripeptide IGF-I and recombinant bovine IGF-II were approximately 40 and 8% respectively. This MAb inhibited binding of purified hIGF-I to human placental membranes. In a radioimmunoassay based on displacement of 125I-labelled rhIGF-I from the MAb, displacement curves generated with dilutions of acid–gel chromatography extracts of guinea-pig serum and rhIGF-I standards were parallel. Twenty-four, 3-week-old male guinea-pigs were treated with the IGF-I MAb, a bovine herpes virus-I (BHV-I) MAb (control MAb) or vehicle (phosphate-buffered saline) (n = 8 per group). Treatments were administered i.p. every 3 days for 24 days at a dose of 20 mg/kg body weight. Blood was obtained on day 23 (48 h after treatment) and on day 25 (24 h after treatment). In a liquid-phase assay, serum from the IGF-I MAb-treated group bound 38 ± 8% (mean ± s.e.m.) (day 23) and 56 ± 7% (day 25) of an 125I-labelled rhIGF-I trace at a final dilution of 1:10 000. Because of the development of an anti-mouse immune response in the guinea-pigs, these parameters would probably have been much greater during the first 2 weeks of the trial. Of the total IGF-I in serum, 50 ± 5% and 61±4% could be immunoprecipitated with an excess of rabbit anti-mouse immunoglobulin in samples from days 23 and 25 respectively. Comparisons between the groups treated with IGF-I MAb and BHV-I MAb revealed no significant differences in whole animal growth rate, growth of individual tissues, or pituitary GH content. Mean serum concentrations of IGF-I were 69 and 99% greater in IGF-I MAb-treated group than in the BHV-I MAb-treated group on days 23 and 25 respectively. These differences probably resulted from an extension of the half-life of IGF-I in serum of animals treated with the IGF-I MAb. The lack of effect of treatment with the IGF-I MAb suggests that local production of IGF-I is generally sufficient to maintain normal growth or that local production or activity of IGF-I is increased in a compensatory fashion. Journal of Endocrinology (1990) 124, 403–415