Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are potent mitogens that play crucial role in cell proliferation and/or differentiation and tumorigenesis. Insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) is a key protein in the IGF signaling pathway in the estrogen-dependent MCF-7 breast carcinoma cell line. In this study, three growth factors (fibroblast growth factor (FGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)) were tested for their ability to modulate IRS-1 protein expression and the IGF-I signaling pathway. FGF and, to a lesser extent, EGF were found to increase IRS-1 protein, whereas PDGF had no effect. This indicates that growth factors can specifically modulate IRS-1 protein content. The increases provoked by EGF and FGF were dependent upon the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, but independent of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) signaling, and required de novo protein synthesis. We noted that the kinetics of MAPK activation was continuous in response to FGF, but transient in response to EGF. In addition, transfection of cells with a constitutively active form of MAPK kinase, which results in continuous MAP kinase activity, increased IRS-1 expression. Taken together, these results suggest that stimulation of IRS-1 expression was therefore stronger when MAPK activity was sustained. Pre-treatment of cells with EGF, FGF or PDGF for 24 h reduced IGF-I-induced tyrosine phosphorylation per molecule of IRS-1. However, IGF-I-induced PI 3-kinase activity was decreased by 24 h of pre-treatment with EGF or PDGF, but not with FGF. Our results therefore demonstrate that different growth factors are capable of specifically modulating the IGF-I signaling via IRS-1. They further suggest that the FGF-induced increase in IRS-1 counterbalances the inhibition of IRS-1 tyrosine phosphorylation, to allow of normal stimulation of IGF-I-induced PI 3-kinase activity.