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Insulin-like growth factors in central nervous system tumors

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Abstract

Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) appear to play arole in the development of tumors in generaland brain tumors in particular. Specific receptors forIGFs have been identified in normal human andrat brain, and evidence suggests that components ofthe IGF signal transduction system may play arole in the transformation process. Secretion of IGFsby a variety of human brain tumors hasbeen confirmed, and these growth factors appear tohave an autocrine stimulatory effect on these tumors.IGFs circulate in the blood stream bound toat least six distinct binding proteins which maymodulate the effects of these growth factors ontarget tissues. Sex steroids may also regulate thebehavior of certain brain tumors such as meningiomasat least in part through their effects onthe expression of IGFs and their binding proteins.Recently, antisense gene technology against certain IGFs ortheir receptors have resulted in potent antitumor effectsin the case of several gliomas, although themechanism for this remains unclear.

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Glick, R.P., Lichtor, T. & Unterman, T.G. Insulin-like growth factors in central nervous system tumors. J Neurooncol 35, 315–325 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005876819455

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