Correlation between serum insulin-like growth factor–1 and the radiographic features of knee-osteoarthritis

الملخص EN

Originally the view was held that only cartilage destruction occurs in osteoarthritis (OA).

But it has been shown that the main underlying cause is failure of chondrocytes to maintain the reparative process of cartilage constituents, mainly collagen and proteoglycans.

It is therefore of interest to look for the factors that stimulate cartilage synthesis.

One of these could be insulin-like growth factor-1(IGF-1), which is an important growth promoting peptide with anabolic effects on cartilage metabolism.

The fact that its serum level tends to decrease in elderly people while it increases in OA, suggests that suboptimal levels of IGF-1 may play a role in the pathogenesis of OA.

This study undertook the estimation of serum level of IGF-1 in fifty patients diagnosed to have OA of the knee joints.

Fifty normal healthy subjects were included as controls.

It was found that there was no significant difference in the serum level between the patients and control groups (mean 24.4 ±3 nmol/L and 26.6±8 nmol/L respectively).

Also, no significant correlation was shown between serum levels of IGF-1 and the radiographic features of the knee joint.

So, our study concluded that the IGF-1 plays no role in the pathogenesis of the OA.