The growth hormone (GH)-insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) axis plays a role in the adaptation to exercise training, but IGF-I gene expression in response to exercise training and GH suppression has not been studied. Twenty female rates underwent a 4-wk treadmill training program begun in the prepubertal period (day 14 of life). In 10 of the training rats, GH production was suppressed by anti-GH-releasing hormone antibodies (GH suppressed). IGF-I mRNA and protein levels were measured in liver and hindlimb skeletal muscle. GH suppression reduced IGF-I mRNA expression in the liver to a much greater extent than in the muscle. In the GH control rats, training induced significant increases in hepatic exon 1-derived IGF-I mRNA (mean increase 30%; P < 0.05) and muscle exon 2-derived mRNA (mean increase 35%; P < 0.05). In the GH-suppressed rats, only muscle exon 1-derived transcripts were significantly increased by training (55%; P < 0.05) and this was associated with a significant increase in muscle IGF-I protein levels (P < 0.05). We speculate that the anabolic response to training may involve both GH-dependent increases in IGF-I mRNA in the liver and GH-independent increases in the muscle.

Five days of treadmill training in rats leads to increased muscle size and running time. This was used to examine the effect of exercise on circulating insulin-like growth factor I [IGF-I; radioimmunoassay (RIA)], local muscle (hindlimb) IGF-I (by RIA), and muscle IGF-I mRNA (by ribonuclease protection assay). Eight-week-old female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups: control ( n = 10); single-exercise test ( n = 10), untrained but with one maximal exercise test at the end of the study; and training ( n = 16), trained for 5 days and one maximal exercise test on day 6. There were no differences among the groups with respect to circulating IGF-I. Muscle IGF-I protein in trained rats (4.2 ± 1.5 ng/g of muscle tissue) was significantly greater than both control (0.27 ± 0.1 ng/g) and single-exercise test (0.62 ± 0.19 ng/g, P < 0.05 by analysis of variance). There was no difference among the groups in IGF-I mRNA gene expression. These data suggest that there is an early, marked, local muscle increase in IGF-I protein in response to exercise. This increase, however, may not be related to increased muscle IGF-I gene expression. Moreover, the IGF-I response was probably local in nature since it was not matched by any increase in circulating IGF-I.