Past, Present, and Future in the Relationship between Growth Retardation and the IGF System: Excerpts from the Cesar Bergada Lecture Given during the SLEP 2015 Annual Meeting

JASPER, HÉCTOR

Hormone Research in Paediatrics

S. Karger AG

Lugar: Basel; Año: 2016 vol. 86 p. 291 - 299

1663-2818

This mini review presents a personal view about the past, the present and the future of the relationship between growth retardation and the IGF system. Looking back, it is pertinent to include a brief look at the evolution of the somatomedin hypothesis, the use of IGF-I determinations in the clinic, and a review of the literature beginning in the late 1980s with the description of mutations in the Growth Hormone Receptor (GHR) gene. The present possibly started in the mid-1990s with the description of mutations in the IGF-I gene, followed in 2003 by reports of mutations in the genes coding for the IGF-I receptor and in the signal transducer and activator of transcription 5b (STAT5b). Finally, in 2004, mutations in the IGFALS gene were described. A diffuse limit between the present and the future might have been reached (the author´s arbitrary decision) with the clinical applications of whole exome sequencing, which rapidly showed mutations in genes coding for STAT3, PAPP-A2 (pregnancy-associated plasma protein A2), and IGF-II.