[Structure and function of insulin-like growth factor acid-labile subunits in mammalian homologues].

Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) act as a critical signaling pathway in animals and play significant roles in body growth, development, and occurrence and progression of animal diseases. In the past, structural and functional studies of ligands, receptors and even specific binding proteins in the IGFs system have been extensively investigated. However, the functional study of insulin-like growth factor acid-labile subunit (IGFALS) mainly focused on the prolonging half-life of IGFs. Increasing number of studies indicated that mutations in the IGFALS DNA sequence and low expression level of IGFALS proteins can lead to growth and development retardation in animals. In this review, we summarize recent structural and functional studies of IGFALS in mammals, aiming to further identify detailed genetic mechanism of IGFALS.