| IGF-1 Appears to Improve
Control in Adolescent Diabetics Without Affecting Leptin
Levels SAN DIEGO, CA, 06 July 1999:- Dr. J. L. Fowlkes and associates, of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, reported at the annual Endocrine Society meeting here that adolescents with type 1 diabetes who were treated for 12 weeks with insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) managed to reduce their daily insulin requirements without any significant change in serum leptin levels [a surrogate marker for potential weight gain.] The poster presentation contended that "...improved metabolic control with IGF-1 therapy is not obtained at the expense of increasing adiposity, as has been seen with intensive insulin therapy." The study population consisted of only seven male and seven female adolescents for a brief 12 weeks duration with three different study doses of IGF-1, given twice a day by subcutaneous injection along with twice daily split-mixed insulin injections. A primary efficacy variable, "serum leptin concentration did not vary according to dose of IGF-1" and, secondly, "these patients decreased their insulin usage by approximately 20%." The chief investigator, Dr. Fowlkes, speculated that "due to the financial constraints of certain companies and some politics involved at the FDA, this is unfortunately not one of those drugs that is being actively investigated." |