Prolonged stress signaling seems to be centrally linked to IIS downregulation, since genotoxic stress in XPF‐ERCC1‐deficient mice suppresses the somatotroph axis triggering somatic growth attenuation (Niedernhofer et al., 2006), and impaired genome maintenance suppresses the growth hormone/IGF‐1 axis in mice with Cockayne syndrome (Van der Pluijm et al., 2007). Here, IGF1 is linked to Cockayne syndrome.