The influence of insulin-like growth factor 1 and insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor on the growth of uterine leiomyoma

Objective To study the influence of IGF 1 and IGF 1R on the pathogenesis of leiomyoma by detecting their expression in patient's leiomyoma tissue and serum.Methods ELISA was used to determine the expression of IGF 1 and IGF IR in leiomyoma and myometrium of patients, and also in the serum of patients and normal control. Each patient served as self-control. 30 cases were selected as normal control of serum. Results ① The expression of IGF 1 and IGF IR was higher in leiomyoma than that in myometrium significantly( P 0.01) . ② There is no difference in the expression of IGF 1 in the serum of patients and in normal subjects( P 0.05) ;The expression of IGF 1R was higher in patients than that in the normal subjects significantly( P 0.01) . Conclusion The result indicate that over-expression of IGF 1 and IGF IR is a probable mechanism in the development of uterine leiomyoma. IGF 1 promoted the growth and proliferation of leiomyoma mainly through autocrine or parac-rine. IGF 1 is a probable regulatory factor in the growth of leiomyoma.