Cell culture as a tool for identifying nutritional disease therapies.

Cell culture methodologies can be used to help develop therapies for the treatment of polytrauma. An overview is presented of research with the L6 myoblast cell line that led to the discovery of the truncated insulin-like growth factor (IGF) variant, des(1-3)IGF-I and that gave an explanation of the enhanced potency of this growth factor. Subsequent efforts to develop an even more potent variant also utilized cultured cells as indicator bioassays. Such experiments not only provided mechanistic information on IGF action but also directed attention towards IGF variants that were later shown to be more potent in vivo at reversing catabolic conditions.