IGF-I measurement across blood, interstitial fluid, and muscle biocompartments following explosive, high-power exercise

Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) resides across different biocompartments [blood, interstitial fluid (ISF), and muscle]. Whether circulating IGF-I responses to exercise reflect local events remains uncertain. We measured the IGF-I response to plyometric exercise across blood, ISF, and muscle biopsy from the vastus lateralis. Twenty volunteers (8 men, 12 women, 22 ± 1 yr) performed 10 sets of 10 plyometric jump repetitions at a 40% 1-repetition maximum. Blood, ISF, and muscle samples were taken pre- and postexercise. Circulating IGF-I increased postexercise: total IGF-I (preexercise = 546 ± 42, midexercise = 585 ± 43, postexercise = 597 ± 45, +30 = 557 ± 42, +60 = 536 ± 40, +120 = 567 ± 42 ng/ml; midexercise, postexercise, and +120 greater than preexercise, P < 0.05); Free IGF-I (preexercise = 0.83 ± 0.09, midexercise = 0.78 ± 0.10, postexercise = 0.79 ± 0.11, +30 = 0.93 ± 0.10, +60 = 0.88 ± 0.10, + 120 = 0.91 ± 0.11 ng/ml; +30 greater than all other preceding time points, P < 0.05). No exercise-induced changes were observed for ISF IGF-I (preexercise = 2.35 ± 0.29, postexercise = 2.46 ± 0.35 ng/ml). No changes were observed for skeletal muscle IGF-I protein, although IGF-I mRNA content increased ∼40% postexercise. The increase in circulating total and free IGF-I was not correlated with increases in ISF IGF-I or muscle IGF-I protein content. Our data indicate that exercise-induced increases in circulating IGF-I are not reflective of local IGF-I signaling.