Insulin-like growth factor I values in patients on maintenance hemodialysis: relationship to growth hormone and albumin levels.

Twenty-seven uremic patients (blood urea: 58.2 +/- 2.2 mmol/l; blood creatinine: 1,069 +/- 53 mumol/l; mean +/- SE) on maintenance dialysis were investigated immediately before and after a dialysis session. Control data were obtained from 30 normal volunteers. Before dialysis, circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) were similar in anuric and nonanuric patients, averaging 305 +/- 24 micrograms/l, a value not different from that observed in normal controls (262 +/- 16 micrograms/l). IGF-I levels were not modified by dialysis. In contrast, GH values were significantly higher in uremic patients (3.6 +/- 0.6 microgram/l) than in normal controls (2.5 +/- 0.5 microgram/l) and decreased significantly after the dialysis session (0.8 +/- 0.1 microgram/l). IGF-I values were positively correlated with GH and albumin, but not with the various parameters of renal insufficiency, suggesting that in chronic renal failure, synthesis of IGF-I appears to be regulated, as in normal subjects, by growth hormone and nutritional status.