Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 (Igf-1) Levels in Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Publisher Pubmed

Summary: Study finds IGFBP-1 levels higher in MS patients, but IGF-1 and other markers show no clear difference. #MultipleSclerosis #Biomarkers

Yaghoobpoor S¹ ; Fathi M¹ ; Vakili K¹ ; Sayehmiri F² ; Alipour M³ ; Miriran ZS⁴ ; Ghayyem H⁵ ; Tutunchian Z⁶ ; Hajibeygi R^{6, 7} ; Batool Z⁸ ; Mirzadeh M⁹ ; Aghazadeh MH⁹ ; Hajiesmaeili M¹⁰
Source: PLoS ONE Published:2024

Abstract

Background and objective Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic progressive autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) that can cause inflammation, demyelination, and axon degeneration. Insulinlike growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is a single-chain polypeptide mainly synthesized in the liver and brain. IGF-1 causes neuronal and non-neuronal cell proliferation, survival, and differentiation. Therefore, it can be used in treating neuro-demyelinating diseases such as MS. The current systematic review and meta-analysis aims to compare the levels of IGF-1 in MS patients and healthy controls and also investigates IGF binding proteins (IGF-BP) and growth hormone (GH) levels between MS patients and healthy controls. Methods In this study, we systematically searched electronic databases of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science (WOS), and Google Scholar, up to December 2022. Studies that measured IGF-1, GH, IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2, or IGFBP-3 in MS patients and healthy controls in either blood or cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) were identified. We calculated Standardized mean differences (SMD) to compare levels of IGF-1, GH, IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2, or IGFBP-3 in MS patients and controls. Results Finally, we included 11 eligible studies from 1998 to 2018. The sample size of included studies varied from 20 to 200 resulting in a total sample size of 1067 individuals, 531 MS patients, and 536 healthy controls. The mean age of the patient and control groups were 38.96 and 39.38, respectively. The average EDSS among patients was 4.56. We found that blood levels of IGF-1 (SMD = 0.20, 95% CI = -0.20 to 0.59, I2 = 82.4%, K = 8, n = 692), CSF level of IGF-1 (SMD = 0.25, 95% CI = -0.06 to 0.56, I2 = 0.0%, K = 3 n = 164) and blood levels of GH were not significantly higher in MS patients than controls (SMD = 0.08, 95% CI = -0.33 to 0.49, I2 = 77.0% K = 3, n = 421). Moreover, the blood levels of IGFBP-1 (SMD = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.01 to 1.40, I2 = 77%, K = 4, n = 255) were significantly higher in MS cases than in controls. However, the blood levels of IGFBP-2 (SMD = 0.43, 95% CI = -0.34 to 1.21, I2 = 64.2%, K = 3, n = 78) and blood levels of IGFBP-3 (SMD = 1.04, 95% CI = -0.09 to 2.17, I2 = 95.6%, K = 6, n = 443) were not significantly higher in patients than controls. Conclusion Our meta-analysis revealed no significant difference in serum levels of IGF-1, GH, IGFBP- 2, and IGFBP-3 between the MS group and healthy controls, except for IGFBP1. However, our systematic review showed that the studies were controversial for IGFBP-3 serum levels. Some studies found an increase in serum level of IGFBP-3 in MS patients compared to the healthy group, while others showed a decrease. © 2024 Yaghoobpoor et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.