Glycomics investigation into insulin action.

Defects in glycosylation are becoming increasingly associated with a range of human diseases. In some cases, the disease is caused by the glycosylation defect, whereas in others, the aberrant glycosylation may be a consequence of the disease. The implementation of highly sensitive and rapid mass spectrometric screening strategies for profiling the glycans present in model biological systems is revealing valuable insights into disease phenotypes.

Cell proliferation activities on skin fibroblasts from a short child with absence of one copy of the type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF1R) gene and a tall child with three copies of the IGF1R gene.

The type 1 IGF receptor (IGF1R) is required for normal embryonic and postnatal growth. The aim of this study was to determine whether we could detect abnormal IGF1R function in skin fibroblasts from children with an abnormal copy number of the IGF1R gene. We report two children with altered copy number of the IGF1R gene who presented with abnormal growth.