IGF1

Overview

IGF1 encodes insulin-like growth factor 1, a peptide growth factor with central roles in postnatal growth, tissue repair, metabolism, and endocrine signaling. It is a key mediator of growth hormone action and is widely used as a circulating biomarker of growth axis activity. In physiology, IGF-1 supports skeletal growth, muscle maintenance, and anabolic processes, while also participating in broader pathways linked to insulin sensitivity, inflammation, and aging.

Clinically, IGF-1 is relevant across multiple disease areas, including short stature, acromegaly, haemophilic arthropathy, osteoarthritis, breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, and age-related musculoskeletal decline. Because IGF-1 reflects both endocrine status and local tissue biology, it is frequently studied as a biomarker, a mechanistic mediator, and a target within pathway-based analyses involving growth hormone, IGFBP-3, STAT3, PI3K, VEGFA, leptin, and related signaling networks.

Focus of Latest Publications

Recent publications have examined IGF1 across a range of disease contexts, most prominently as a signaling node in cancer and as a biomarker of growth, tissue injury, and metabolic status. In gastric cancer, quercetin was investigated as a potential modulator of IGF1 signaling using network pharmacology, molecular docking, 200 ns molecular dynamics simulations, and validation in AGS cells. IGF1 emerged as a key hub gene, and quercetin showed favorable predicted binding to IGF1, stable complex behavior in simulations, significant downregulation of IGF1 mRNA, and dose-dependent inhibition of IGF1 activity, supporting a possible role in interrupting IGF1-mediated tumor growth and survival pathways.

In breast cancer, IGF1 was studied alongside IGFBP-3 and hormone receptor status in Palestinian women with newly diagnosed disease. Higher serum IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 levels were observed in ER(+)/PR(+) patients, and IGF-1 correlated positively with hormone receptor status and with more advanced stages. The same study also found that the IGFBP-3 A-202C genotype was significantly associated with PR and combined ER/PR positivity, suggesting that IGF1-related measures may have value as candidate biomarkers for breast cancer risk and progression. Another breast cancer study reported that palbociclib-induced fibroblast senescence increased IGF1 and FGF7 levels, contributing to an immunosuppressive microenvironment through macrophage polarization and reduced lymphocyte viability.

Several studies focused on IGF1 as a marker of growth and tissue health. In children with short stature, height showed a strong positive correlation with IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 levels, alongside associations with iron, hemoglobin, zinc, sex hormones, and glucose. In a birth cohort from Indonesia, IGF-1 was identified as a significant determinant of length-for-age z-score at 12 months, and pathway analysis suggested that environmental enteric dysfunction influences linear growth indirectly through systemic inflammation and altered growth signaling, with IGF-1 negatively associated with CD14. In haemophilic arthropathy, IGF-1 negatively correlated with clinical and ultrasound joint scores in severe haemophilia, indicating a potential relationship with joint damage severity.

Other recent publications placed IGF1 in broader physiological and translational contexts. A study of surgically treated acromegaly highlighted postoperative biochemical discordance between growth hormone and IGF-1 as a clinical management challenge. In skeletal muscle aging, IGF1 was identified among key genes shared by calorie restriction and endurance exercise, within pathways related to longevity, AMPK, and FoxO signaling. IGF1 also appeared in a bibliometric analysis of growth factors in osteoarthritis and in a study of Yinxingye tablets, where it was listed among hub targets implicated in antioxidant stress effects.

Key Publications

• NEWJun Quercetin targets IGF1 signaling in gastric cancer: a synergy of network pharmacology, molecular simulations, and in vitro functional assays. (Journal of computer-aided molecular design, 2026, PMID 42295420): "Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) emerged as a key hub gene associated with GC progression."
• Jan Interplay of the IGFBP-3 polymorphism and serum levels of IGF-1/IGFBP-3 with hormone receptor subtypes in patients with breast cancer among Palestinian women. (PloS one, 2026, PMID 42224209): "This study aimed to investigate the relationships between serum levels of insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), the IGFBP-3 A-202C polymorphism and hormone receptor subtypes: estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) with respect to breast cancer risk in Palestinian women."
• Jun The biomarkers uCTX-II, CS846 and IGF-1 are associated with clinical and ultrasound scores in haemophilic arthropathy: a cross-sectional study. (Rheumatology international, 2026, PMID 42217051): "To assess the association of cartilage and bone turnover biomarkers uCTX-II, CS846, OC, bALP, CTX-I, IGF-1, and CTSG with HA severity in severe and mild haemophilia, as evaluated by clinical and ultrasound scoring."
• May The correlation between height and assay parameters in children with short stature. (Medicine, 2026, PMID 42175428): "The research emphasized the correlation of height with insulin-like growth factor-1, insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3, and other parameters, and a negligible correlation with lipid metabolism parameters."
• May Prevalence and patterns of biochemical discordance in patients with surgically treated acromegaly. (Pituitary, 2026, PMID 42177388): "Discordance between growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), where one hormone is within the age- and sex-adjusted reference and the other is not, can be observed in patients with acromegaly."
• May Environmental enteric dysfunction influences linear growth of children through insulin-like growth factor-1: findings from the Indonesian Action Against Stunting Hub birth cohort. (Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2026, PMID 42132033): "This study aimed to investigate effects of environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) and systemic inflammation on plasma insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 and linear growth among Indonesian infants."
• Jun Integrated UPLC-QTOF-MS and Network Pharmacology for Predicting Active Constituents and Pharmacological Mechanisms of Yinxingye Tablets Against Oxidative Stress. (Biomedical chromatography : BMC, 2026, PMID 42104588): "Based on virtual target prediction, 211 targets of 76 active constituents with identifiable structures were identified, and HSP90AA1, SRC, CASP3, MAPK8, MMP9, IGF1, RAF1, and PPARG were defined as the hub targets involved in the antioxidant stress effects of Yinxingye tablets."
• Apr Evaluation of the effects of ivermectin and Moringa oleifera nanoparticles on muscular trichinellosis in a murine model. (Infection, genetics and evolution : journal of molecular epidemiology and evolutionary genetics in infectious diseases, 2026, PMID 42035901): "Moreover, the local gene expression of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) and its downstream anabolic switch phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase (PI3K) was analyzed."
• Apr CSF1R inhibitors mitigate CDK4/6 inhibitor-induced immunosuppression to increase antitumor immunity in HR+/HER2- breast cancer. (Oncogene, 2026, PMID 41986650): "...thereby increasing IGF1 and FGF7 levels."
• May Effects of Psyllium Husk on Metabolic Regulators, Insulin Resistance, and SIRT6 in Liver and Muscle of Type 2 Diabetic Rats. (Veterinary medicine and science, 2026, PMID 41940860): "Biomarkers like glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4), phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), sirtuin 6 (SIRT6), nesfatin-1, glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), leptin, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) play important roles in various physiological processes."