Serum Levels of Growth Hormone and Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 in Children with Type 1 Diabetes
Issue: 2/2003
Author: M. Archinkova, K. Koprivarova, G. Kirilov*, Z. Abadjieva*, Clinic of Diabetes, University Children's Hospital – Sofia 'Clinical Center of Endocrinology and Gerontology, Medical University – Sofia
Abstract:
The aim of the current work was to evaluate serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and growth hormone (GH) in children and adolescents with diabetes mellitus type 1 and to compare them to healthy controls.
We investigated 128 diabetic children and adolescents, aged 1 to 18 years, and 68 healthy control subjects. All of them were divided in 5 groups according to age and puberty stage. We measured serum levels of IGF-1 and GH under basal conditions.
Mean values of IGF-1 increase with age and there is a peak at puberty stages IV-V in both diabetic patients and controls. In all age groups the serum level of IGF-1 is lower in diabetic patients in comparison to the healthy children. IGF-1 levels are reduced significantly in patients with diabetes mellitus from the first age group (0-4 y.) – p < 0,01, the third group (prepubertal children) – p< 0,001, the forth group (puberty stage ll-lll) – p< 0,001 and the fifth group (puberty stage IV-V) – p< 0,001. There are no significant differences between the diabetic and control patients concerning basal concentrations of GH.
Our results support the presence of abnormalities of GH/IGF-1 axis in diabetic children and significant changes in IGF-1 levels, especially during puberty.
Keywords: growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor-1, diabetes mellitus type 1.
