Abstract
Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) is a ubiquitous hormone that is secreted in both an endocrine and an autocrine/paracrine manner. IGF-I has conventionally been measured in serum; however, transdermal body fluid (TDF) remains as an unexplored biocompartment in which IGF-I also resides and may be more biologically relevant because of its proximity to tissues and cells. The purpose of this study was to compare IGF-I in serum versus IGF-I in TDF before and after 8 weeks of physical training. Twenty-eight healthy men (28 ± 5 years old, 176 ± 8 cm tall, weighing 83 ± 11 kg) had TDF obtained by a novel, minimally invasive method that included the application of continuous vacuum pressure on forearm skin perforated with tiny micropores created by a focused beam from a laser system and also had blood obtained by venipuncture. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay measured total IGF-I concentrations. A repeated-measures analysis of variance (biocompartment × time) and Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficients(P ≤ 0.05) were used for statistical analyses. Data are presented as mean ± SE. Total TDF IGF-I was significantly lower than serum IGF-I both before (TDF, 91 ± 6 ng/mL; serum, 375 ± 17 ng/mL) and after (TDF, 83 ± 5 ng/mL; serum, 363 ± 19 ng/mL) the exercise training. Serum and TDF IGF-I values were not significantly different pre- to post-training. Serum and TDF IGF-I levels were significantly correlated pre-training (r = 0.41), but not post-training (r = 0.34). The percent change between serum and TDF was not correlated (r = 0.09). This study has demonstrated that total IGF-I can be sampled and measured in TDF via a minimally invasive manner and is appreciably(∼76%) less than total IGF-I measured in serum. Additionally, the IGF-I measurements in these two biocompartments were not closely associated, possibly indicating an uncoupled, rather than a linked, regulation of IGF-I among the body’s biocompartments.
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