Nishiki M, Murakami Y, Kawaguchi M, Hashimoto R, Hatta T, Otani H, Kanatsu K, Kajiwara H, Osamura R Y, Kato Y
Department of Medicine, Shimane Medical University, Izumo, Japan.
Clin Nephrol. 1999 Sep;52(3):148-51.
Renal expression of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) was examined in the specimens obtained at renal biopsy from five patients with acute renal failure (ARF) at the recovering phase. IGF-I peptide and mRNA were demonstrated in the cytoplasm of the epithelial cells of focal proximal tubules in four patients in whom renal function had been ameliorating. The stainings of IGF-I peptide and mRNA were intense in patients with favorable prognosis. Either IGF-I immunoreactivity or mRNA was not detected in the renal tissues in five cases with chronic renal insufficiency and four patients with renal carcinoma. Our preliminary findings suggest that IGF-I is locally produced in the kidney during the recovery period of ARF and might play roles in the repair processes, and extend the experimental observations in animal models into human pathophysiology.
