Involvement of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF1) stimulation of proliferation of a bovine mammary epithelial cell line.

The objective of this study was to determine the mechanism by which insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF1) stimulates proliferation of mammary epithelial cells, using the bovine mammary epithelial cell line MAC-T as a model. IGF1 significantly up- or down-regulated the expression of 155 genes in MAC-T cells. Among the most significantly suppressed was the gene for connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), a secretory protein that has both proliferative and apoptotic effects and is also a low-affinity binding protein of IGF1. IGF1 inhibited CTGF expression through the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Administration of growth hormone (GH), a strong stimulator of IGF1 production in vivo, decreased mammary CTGF mRNA in cattle; however, GH did not affect CTGF expression in MAC-T cells, suggesting that IGF1 may also inhibit CTGF expression in the mammary gland. Added alone CTGF stimulated proliferation of MAC-T cells, but in combination with IGF1 it attenuated IGF1's stimulation of proliferation of MAC-T cells. Excess IGF1 reversed this attenuating effect of CTGF. Despite being an IGF binding protein, CTGF did not affect IGF1-induced phosphorylation of IGF1 receptor (IGF1R) or IGF1R expression in MAC-T cells, indicating that the attenuating effect of CTGF on IGF1 stimulated proliferation of MAC-T cells was not mediated by decreasing IGF1's ability to bind to IGF1R or by decreasing IGF1R expression. Overall, these results suggest a novel biochemical and functional relationship between CTGF and IGF1 in the bovine mammary gland, where IGF1 may inhibit CTGF expression to reduce the attenuating effect of CTGF on IGF1 stimulated proliferation of epithelial cells.