The Role of Insulin-like Growth Factors in Fetal Growth and Development

本研究的目的是建立一种活体系统，用于研究母体血清胰岛素样生长因子(IGF)水平对胎鼠发育的影响。认识到生长因素可能会影响发展的几个方面，这激起了人们对确定它们的影响和作用机制的真实范围的兴趣。IGF.II被认为是胚胎发育和胎儿生长的调节因子，这项拟议的研究最终试图确定这一暗示的可靠性。该实验方法将利用分泌IGF II的肿瘤来提高母亲的IGF II水平，并探索这些升高的水平与胎盘、因子的结合和通过以及与胎儿生长模式的关系。最初的目标是确定肿瘤系统对扰乱胎盘和胎儿IGF.II水平的有效性。随后将致力于将该系统的解释复杂性降低到能够直接分析IGF.II对胎儿的影响的水平。如果成功，这个系统可能会产生其他方法不易获得的数据，并增加我们对生长和发育调控机制的理解。//

The objective of this research is to develop an in vivo system for study of the effects of maternal serum Insulin.like Growth Factor (IGF) levels on fetal rat development. The recognition that> growth factors may influence several aspects of development has excited interest in defining the true range of their effects and action mechanisms. IGF.II has been implicated as a regulator of embryogenis and fetal growth, and the proposed research seeks ultimately to determine the soundness of this implication. The experimental approach will utilize IGF.II secreting tumors to raise maternal IGF.II levels, and explore the relation of these elevated levels to placental.binding and passage of the factor, and to patterns of fetal growth. The initial objective is to determine the effectiveness of the tumor system for perturbing placental and fetal IGF.II levels. Subsequent efforts will be devoted to reducing the interpretive complexity of the system to a level that will permit direct analysis of IGF.II effects on the fetus. If successful, this system may generate data not easily available by other approaches, and increase our understanding of regulatory mechanisms of growth and development. //