Quantitation of Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 in Serum by Liquid Chromatography High Resolution Accurate-Mass Mass Spectrometry

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is a 70 amino acid peptide hormone which acts as the principal mediator of the effects of growth hormone (GH). Due to a wide variability in circulating concentration of GH, IGF-1 quantitation is the first step in the diagnosis of GH excess or deficiency. Majority (>95 %) of IGF-1 circulates as a ternary complex along with its principle binding protein insulin-like growth factor 1 binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) and acid labile subunit. The assay design approach for IGF-1 quantitation has to include a step to dissociate IGF-1 from its ternary complex. Several commercial assays employ a buffer containing acidified ethanol to achieve this. Despite several modifications, commercially available immunoassays have been shown to have challenges with interference from IGFBP-3. Additionally, inter-method comparison between IGF-1 immunoassays has been shown to be suboptimal. Mass spectrometry has been utilized for quantitation of IGF-1. In this chapter a liquid chromatography high resolution accurate-mass mass spectrometry (LC-HRAMS) based method for IGF-1 quantitation has been described.