Receptors and binding proteins for insulin and insulin-like growth factors in the placenta of healthy mothers and mothers with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

Abstract

The IGF system of human placenta consists of insulin-like growth factors (IGF)-I and -II, their receptors (IGF-1R and IGF-2R), and binding proteins (IGFBP-1 to -6). Due to many structural and metabolic similarities with insulin, the IGF system cannot be examined separately from insulin and its receptor (IR). In this study gel filtration was used to detect solubilized membrane proteins of the placenta obtained from healthy mothers and mothers with IDDM. In order to detect placental membrane proteins that bind IGF molecules (and insulin), the solubilized membranes were incubated with each of the three 125I-labelled ligands: 125I-IGF-I, 125I-IGF-II and 125I-insulin prior to gel filtration chromatography. The biochemical evidence of the presence of receptors for insulin and IGFs, as well as that of IGFBP-1 were obtained by immunoblotting. Herein we demonstrated that, considering IGF and insulin receptor content, the placental tissue obtained from mothers with IDDM was not different from that obtained from healthy mothers. However, the concentration of IGFBP-1 differed between the examined placentas. IDDM in mothers caused an increase in the amount of IGFBP-1 in their placentas and, consequently, the amount of the labelled ligand bound to it. The redistribution of IGFs between the receptors and IGFBP-1 may be involved in regulatory mechanisms in the placenta of mothers with IDDM.

Keywords

• diabetes
• igfbps
• igf-1r
• igf-2r
• ir
• placenta