Serum levels of insulin-like growth factor I and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 1 correlate with serum free testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin levels in healthy young and middle-aged men

E M Erfurth, L E Hagmar, M Sääf, K Hall

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Administration of testosterone has been reported to increase serum levels of IGF-I in men with isolated hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism. An inverse relation between serum IGF-I and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) is seen in GH deficient children. The biological action of IGF-I is thought to be influenced by binding proteins, one of which is insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1), which is not only a carrier protein but also actively regulates the cellular actions of IGF-I. These observations suggest associations between IGF-I, IGFBP-1, testosterone and SHBG in serum. The aim of the present study was to investigate these associations in normal healthy men.

DESIGN AND PATIENTS: The associations between the serum levels of IGF-I and IGFBP-1 on one hand, and testosterone and SHBG on the other were investigated in 38 normal healthy young and middle-aged men.

RESULTS: Serum levels of IGF-I decreased both with increasing age (r = -0.66, P < 0.001) and increasing SHBG levels (r = -0.46, P = 0.002), but increased with increasing free testosterone (f-testosterone) (r = 0.42, P = 0.005). These associations remained after mutual simultaneous adjustments in a multiple regression analysis. IGFBP-1 did not display any significant univariate correlation with age (r = -0.25, P = 0.06) or SHBG (r = 0.18, P = 0.14), but showed a significant positive correlation with both f-testosterone (r = 0.42, P = 0.004), and total testosterone (t-testosterone) (r = 0.39, P = 0.008). In a multiple regression analysis IGFBP-1 was positively correlated with both SHBG and f-testosterone, but not with t-testosterone.

CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that among healthy young and middle-aged men, there is an association between serum levels of free-testosterone and SHBG on the one hand, and serum IGF-I and IGFBP-1 on the other.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)659-64
JournalClinical Endocrinology
Volume44
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1996

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Endocrinology and Diabetes

Free keywords

  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Humans
  • Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 1/blood
  • Insulin-Like Growth Factor I/analysis
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Regression Analysis
  • Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin/analysis
  • Testosterone/blood

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