The development and characterization of an eluted stain assay (ESTA) for the insulin-like growth factors.

An Eluted Stain Assay System (ESTA) has been adapted for the bioassay of the insulin-like growth factors, IGF-I and IGF-II. This ESTA is based on the Fischer Rat Thyroid cell line FRTL-5 which was grown as uniform, adherent microcultures on 96-well microtitre plates. The cells were stimulated with the growth factors for 48 h in hormone and serum free conditions. Responses were determined by the addition of the tetrazolium salt MTT which was reduced to a purple formazan product in a dose related manner. This was directly eluted from the cells and measured with a microtitre plate reader. The signal generated was solely dependent on metabolic activation of the cells, since no increase in cell numbers was detected during the bioassay. The advantages of using this method are its sensitivity, precision, specificity, rapidity and high sample throughout. This bioassay, which is based on a colorimetric method, is technically convenient compared with other systems including the earlier cytochemical bioassays and the radioisotopic methods. We have demonstrated that this MTT ESTA provides a useful method for the study of complex interactions between IGF-I and IGF-II and their related binding proteins and that IGF bioactivity in serum may also be investigated using this ESTA bioassay.

Cytokines modulate the sensitivity of human fibroblasts to stimulation with insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) by altering endogenous IGF-binding protein production.

Human dermal fibroblasts produce a number of insulin-like growth factor-binding proteins (IGFBPs) including the main circulating form, IGFBP-3. It has been suggested that the regulation of IGFBP secretion may play a major role in modulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF) bioactivity. We have quantified the effects of two cytokines, transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) which have opposing actions on fibroblast IGFBP-3 production, and examined their subsequent role in IGF-I mitogenesis. TGF-beta 1 caused a dose-dependent increase in IGFBP-3 in serum-free fibroblast-conditioned media. TGF-beta 1 (1 microgram/l) resulted in immunoreactive IGFBP-3 levels reaching 286.5 +/- 22.4% of control after 20 h, the increase being confirmed by Western ligand blot. TNF-alpha caused a dose-dependent decrease in fibroblast IGFBP-3 secretion, 1 microgram TNF-alpha/l reducing IGFBP-3 levels to 32.1 +/- 11.% of control. This effect was not due to cytotoxicity and was not cell-density-dependent. Fibroblast proliferation was examined using a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) colorimetric cytochemical bioassay. The addition of IGF-I resulted in dose-dependent growth stimulation after 48 h, the effective range being 20-100 micrograms/l. The IGF-I analogue Long-R3-IGF-I which has little affinity for the IGFBPs was approximately 20-fold more potent in this assay, and was unaffected by exogenous IGFBP-3.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)