Growth hormone signaling in the regulation of acid labile subunit

Abstract

The past decades have seen enormous advances in our understanding of how GH acts. GH is a pituitary-derived polypeptide hormone that has diverse physiological effects including the regulation of bone growth, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. The effects of GH are mediated directly and indirectly through IGF-I. In addition, GH stimulates the hepatic production of ALS. In postnatal life, lGF-I and -II circulate as 150 kDa ternary complexes consisting of one molecule each of IGFBP-3 or IGFBP-5, IGF-I or IGF-II and ALS. It is now known that ALS increases significantly the half-lives of the IGFs, IGFBP-3 and -5, and therefore is responsible for maintaining a circulating reservoir for each of these proteins.