Localization of the gene encoding insulin-like growth factor I on mouse chromosome 10.

The peptide hormone, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), is a major determinant of growth in mammals, and also plays a role in differentiation of adipocytes and other cells (Van Wyk, 1984). Although IGF-I is synthesized in many cell types, the liver appears to be the principal organ in which IGF-I is synthesized in response to pituitary growth hormone. In mice, there is a spurt of IGF-I synthesis in liver at about three weeks of age. In human pygmies, the absence of a growth spurt at adolescence is associated with the absence of an increase in serum levels of IGF-I (Merimee et al., 1981). Thus deficiency of IGF-I may be the primary determinant of short stature in pygmies and in other isolated cases of growth hormone resistant dwarfism. Although the murine Igf-1 locus has not been assigned to a chromosome, the human homolog (IGF1) has been mapped to chromosome region 12q22----q24.1 (Francke et al., 1986). Since there appears to be extensive homology between this human chromosomal segment and the distal part of murine Chromosome 10, linkage to this chromosome was suspected. Because the growth deficient mutation of the mouse, pygmy (pg), has also been mapped to Chromosome 10 (Falconer and Isaacson, 1965), we were interested in localizing Igf-1 in order to investigate the possibility that pg might be allelic to Igf-1. We show that the Igf-1 locus is located in the central part of Chromosome 10, a considerable distance from pg.