Structure-function relationships of insulin and insulin-like growth factor-I receptor binding

In this chapter, we review the current knowledge of the structure of the ligsands and receptors of the insulin/insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) peptide family, their structure-function relationships and mapping of the binding sites on the ligands and receptors by site-directed mutagenesis. We discuss a plausible bivalent crosslinking binding model that explains the complex binding properties of insulin and the IGFs.