Insulin-like Growth Factor I and its Binding Proteins in Health, Aging and Disease

The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) were discovered in 1956 by William D. Salmon Jr. and William H. Daughaday at Washington University, St Louis, USA. Initially IGFs were called sulfation factors because they were able to replace the sulfation factor activity of growth hormone (GH)(l). Moreover, the IGFs were found to be able to stimulate DNA synthesis , proteoglycan synthesis, glycosaminoglycan synthesis, and protein synthesis. In 1963 Froesch et al. from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, described exces