Insulin-like growth factor II stimulates cell proliferation through the insulin receptor

R− cells are 3T3-like fibroblasts generated from mouse embryos nullizygous for a targeted disruption of the genes encoding the type 1 insulin-like growth factor (IGF) receptor (IGF1R). These cells fail to proliferate in serum-free medium supplemented with purified growth factors, in contrast to their wild-type counterparts. However, when R− cells overexpress the insulin receptor from a stably integrated plasmid, R−/IR cells, they become capable of growing in serum-free medium supplemented solely with insulin or IGF-II, but not with IGF-I. Moreover, the introduction into R−/IR cells of an additional plasmid expressing IGF-II causes these cells to proliferate in serum-free medium without growth factor supplementation. From these results, we conclude that IGF-II can stimulate cell proliferation not only through its cognate IGF1R but also through the insulin receptor.