With the progress of perinatal
medicine, the
survival rate of
premature infants has been greatly improved, but the
incidence of preterm related
complications has also increased, including
growth retardation, premature
brain injury,
retinopathy of prematurity,
bronchopulmonary dysplasia and
necrotizing enterocolitis.
Insulin-like growth factor-1(
IGF-1)specifically binds to
IGF-1 receptor to activate intracellular signaling pathways, so that can promote
cell growth, proliferation and differentiation, and inhibit
apoptosis.
IGF-1 is involved in the development of the
heart,
brain,
lung, and other important organs and promotes
tissue growth, so it
plays an important
role in fetal intrauterine development and neonatal extrauterine
growth.At present, some clinical trials have found that recombinant
IGF-1 and its
binding protein-3 can
play a
role in the prevention and
treatment of
retinopathy of prematurity and
bronchopulmonary dysplasia, bringing
hope for the prevention and
treatment of these refractory
complications of prematurity.In this
review, the function of
IGF-1 and its
role in preterm related
complications are reviewed.