AIM:To study its controlling effect of ocular development and correlation of controlling effect to the degree of myopia by observing concentration of insulin like growth factor 1(IGF1) and insulin like growth factor binding protein-3(IGFBP-3) in children with myopia and emmetropia. METHODS: Sixty children 120 eyes with myopia and 60 children 120 eyes with emmetropia were collected at random. All subjects with myopia were examined and separated into three groups according to visual acuity: mild myopia worse than -3.00D, moderate myopia(-3.00 --6.00D), high myopia(better than -6.00D). IGF1 and IGFBP-3 of all subjects were measured with enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The data were analyzed by SPSS 13.0 statistics software. RESULTS:There was no statistical difference between two groups in age, gender, height, weight, corneal refractive power and corneal thickness. The ocular axial length of myopia group was longer than control group. IGF1 and IGFBP-3 concentration of myopia group were higher than control group. The more degree of myopia,the higher IGF1 and IGFBP-3 concentration . There were positive correlations between IGF1 or IGFBP-3 and the degree of myopia, ocular length, refraction. There were no correlations between IGF1 or IGFBP-3 and height, weight, corneal refractive power, corneal thickness. CONCLUSION: Experiments further confirm controlling effect of IGF1 and IGFBP-3 concentration on ocular development. There exist the correlations between the controlling effect and the generation and development of myopia. Biological activity of IGF1 is controlled by IGFBP-3.