Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are mitogenic peptide hormones that regulate embryonic development, postnatal growth and cellular differentiation in vertebrates IGFs are initially translated as pre-pro-peptides and then proteolytically processed to yield the mature IGFs and E-peptides. Like the C-peptide of pro-insulin, the E-peptides of pro-IGFs are generally believed to possess little or no biological activity other than their potential roles in the biosynthesis of the mature IGFs. Like human IGF-1, previous studies in our laboratory showed that the recombinant trout Ea4-peptide of pro-IGF-1 exhibited a dose-dependent mitegenic activity in cultured BALB/3T3 fibroblasts and other non-oncogenic transformed cells (Tian et al., 1999) We have also shown by in vitro and in vivo studies that Ea4-peptide possessed novel anti-tumor activities (Chen et al., 2002, Kuo and Chen, 2002; Kuo and Chen 2003). Recent results of studies conducted in chorionicallantoic membrane of developing chicken embryos revealed that Ea4-peptide of trout pro-IGF-1 also possesses a dose-dependent antiangiogenic activity. Together these results raised the question whether Ea4-peptide of trout pro-IGF-1 may affect heart and blood vessel development and hematopoiesis in fish embryos. (중략)

• Chun Chang-Zoon
• Maria J. Chen
• Thomas T. Chen