# Dysregulated Growth Factor Transport and Accelerated Bone Elongation in Childhood Obesity

> **NIH NIH P20** · MARSHALL UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $233,676

## Abstract

Childhood obesity can be devastating to the growing skeleton because it can accelerate bone elongation and
contribute to the development of painful conditions such as limb bowing, joint instability, fractures, and slipped
epiphyses. The primary obstacle to successful clinical intervention is lack of knowledge of the underlying cause
of obesity-induced growth acceleration. Paradoxically, obese children have low to normal levels of growth
hormone and IGF-I, the two major hormones that stimulate growth. IGF binding proteins (IGFBPs), which
restrict growth by sequestering free IGF-I, are reduced in obesity. Preliminary data suggest that local binding
proteins may regulate bone elongation by entrapping IGF-I and limiting its transport into the skeleton. The long-
term goal is to elucidate the role of local IGFBPs in regulating bone elongation in skeletal growth plates. The
overall objective is to determine how IGFBP reduction leads to growth acceleration in obesity. The central
hypothesis, based on strong preliminary data and tested under two specific aims using dynamic in vivo
multiphoton microscopy and a mouse model of human obesity, is that a decrease in local IGFBPs promotes
bone lengthening by allowing more IGF-I transport into growth plates. Specific Aim 1 uses in vivo cartilage
imaging and ex vivo protein assays to determine bone elongation rate, IGFBP levels, and amount of IGF-I
transport into growth plates of obese and non-obese mice. Specific Aim 2 uses local injections to deliver
IGFBPs into one limb of young mice to show if local IGFBPs limit IGF-I transport and elongation rate. The
rationale for demonstrating a causative link between local IGFBPs in the skeleton and IGF-I transport into
growth plates is to facilitate design of IGFBP-based therapies to regulate skeletal growth and improve bone
quality in obese children. This project is innovative by using multiphoton imaging to dynamically assess growth
plate transport at the cellular level in vivo. This contribution is significant because it can yield transformative
findings that mechanistically link IGFBPs to IGF-I uptake in cartilage and bone elongation rate. Such results
could aid the development of IGFBPs as a therapeutic strategy for normalizing bone maturation rate in obese
children, thus reducing chronic adult disability.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9859419
- **Project number:** 5P20GM121299-03
- **Recipient organization:** MARSHALL UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Maria Anne Serrat
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $233,676
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9859419

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9859419, Dysregulated Growth Factor Transport and Accelerated Bone Elongation in Childhood Obesity (5P20GM121299-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9859419. Licensed CC0.

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