A family of peptides that mediates the action of growth hormone on skeletal tissue, and stimulates bone formation.
Proteins produced by the liver and other tissues that, in conjunction with growth hormone, stimulate growth. These compounds are closely related to insulin; their secretion is reduced in untreated diabetes and restored to normal by insulin treatment.
Any of a group of insulin-like growth factors (somatomedin C and somatomedin A) that require growth hormone in order to exert their function of stimulating growth. These proteins are produced in the liver and other tissues.
A cluster of endogenous chemical messengers that facilitate and intensify cellular proliferation and mitosis.