IGF-1 is a well-characterized basic peptide secreted by the liver that circulates in the blood. It has growth-regulating, insulin-like, mitogenic activities. IGF-1 is a growth factor that has a major, but not absolute, dependence on somatotropin. It is believed to be mainly active in adults in contrast to IGF-2, which is also a major fetal growth factor.
Human Long R3 Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (rhLR3IGF-1) contains an 83 amino acid analog of human IGF-I. Compared to the complete human IGF-I sequence, an addition of the rhLR3IGF-1 includes the substitution of an Arg for the Glu at position 3 (hence R3)and a13 amino acid extension peptide at the N-terminus. An enhanced potency is due to the markedly decreased binding of human Long-R3-IGF-I to IGF binding proteins which normally inhibit the biological actions of IGFs. RhLR3IGF-1 is properly folded under oxidizing conditions and then purified by proprietary chromatographic techniques at GenScript.