Postnatal serum IGF-1 levels associate with brain volumes at term in extremely preterm infants

What Was Tested

Researchers studied IGF-1 LR3 in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Growth factors important for normal brain development are low in preterm infants.

This study investigated the link between growth factors and preterm brain volumes at term.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are infants.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

Because people in this IGF-1 LR3 study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Infants born <28 weeks gestational age (GA) were included.

Endogenous levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1, brain-derived growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, and platelet-derived growth factor (expressed as area under the curve [AUC] for serum samples from postnatal days 1, 7, 14, and 28) were utilized in a multivariable linear regression model.

Brain volumes were determined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at term equivalent age.

What Was Measured

IGF-1 is a critical regulator of neurodevelopment and postnatal levels are low in preterm infants.

The effects of IGF-1 levels on brain development in extremely preterm infants are not fully understood.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Infant, Extremely Premature, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A, Brain, Gray Matter, Gestational Age and Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of IGF-1 LR3.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2023 (Pediatric research), a journal based in United States.

More context: the IGF-1 LR3 compound page, all human trials.