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

Abstract

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.