Growth factors: future prospects in renal failure

Abstract

Chronic renal failure is associated with an abnormal growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-1 axis. In addition, nutritional status strongly regulates this axis. Because these hormones are involved in growth in children and maintenance of a normal body composition in adults, experimental and clinical studies have tested the metabolic effects of these recombinant growth factors. Various conditions in which these growth factors have been administered have been reported, such as the recovery of acute renal failure, protein metabolism in chronic renal failure, growth improvement in uremic children, the increase in renal function in nondialyzed uremic patients, and the potential treatment of malnutrition in adult maintenance dialysis patients.