Tertiary structures, receptor binding, and antigenicity of insulinlike growth factors.

Three-dimensional models for human insulinlike growth factors (IGF-I and IGF-II) have been constructed by using interactive molecular graphics. It is suggested that the two growth factors have structures in which the A and B chains and the hydrophobic cores are identical to those of insulin. The conformations of the connecting peptides and COOH-terminal extensions are predicted by statistical methods but the structures are limited by the constraints implied by the insulinlike part. The models explain the nonsuppressibility by anti-insulin antibodies of the IGFs and show that part of the insulin receptor-binding region is conserved, which explains the growth factors' ability to bind insulin receptors.