No Treatment Benefits of Local Administration of Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 in Addition to Heavy Slow Resistance Training in Tendinopathic Human Patellar Tendons: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial With 1-Year Follow-up

What Was Tested

Researchers studied IGF-1 LR3 in the context of insulin resistance, prediabetes & type 2 diabetes in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To study whether IGF-1 injections combined with HSR training enhance tendon synthesis, tissue structure, and patient satisfaction versus saline injection combined with HSR training in patients with patellar tendinopathy.

Why It Was Studied

Heavy slow resistance (HSR) training is currently recommended as part of the treatment of patellar tendon tendinopathy.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers, young adults, adults and middle-aged adults.

The secondary outcomes were patient-reported outcomes (scores on the Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment-Patella [VISA-P] and visual analog scale [VAS] for pain) and structural changes before the initiation of treatment and at week 3, week 12, and 1 year after the initiation of treatment.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the IGF-1 LR3 group and the comparison group should start out alike.

The timeline in the abstract includes 12 weeks.

Randomized controlled trial; Level of evidence, 1.

The primary outcome was collagen synthesis parameters after 12 weeks (primary endpoint).

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Patella, Patellar Ligament, Resistance Training and Tendinopathy.

The authors tagged it with the keywords IGF-1, cell/molecular biology, diagnostic ultrasound, growth factors/healing enhancement, imaging and knee patellar tendon.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of IGF-1 LR3 in people with insulin resistance, prediabetes & type 2 diabetes over 12 weeks.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2021 (The American journal of sports medicine), a journal based in United States.

More context: the IGF-1 LR3 compound page, Insulin resistance, prediabetes & type 2 diabetes research.