Analysis Note

The biological activity is measured by its ability to induce IL-11 secretion by Saos-2 human osteosarcoma cells.

Application

Hepatocyte Growth Factor human has been used as a growth factor cocktail to suspend rat fibrogen/thrombin cells. It has also been used to study the tyrosine phosphorylation of MET (MET proto-oncogene, receptor tyrosine kinase) in myxofibrosarcoma cell line.

Biochem/physiol Actions

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a potent mitogen for hepatocytes and a variety of cell types including endothelial and epithelial cells, melanocytes, and keratinocytes. It also mediates epithelial morphogenesis. HGF is the ligand for the tyrosine kinase receptor encoded by the met proto-oncogene.

HGF′s major function is to induce in vitro hepatocytes proliferation. HGF is also essential for cell migration and angiogenesis. Itis associated with embryonic development and tissue homeostasis. It is known to mediate placental trophoblast invasion, which is essential for normal fetal growth. Abnormal and defective HGF causes preeclampsia due to placental insufficiency. HGF exhibits its multifunctions through c-MET (proto-oncogene tyrosine kinase receptor). HGF is known to induce human umbilical vein endothelial cell proliferation and vasculogenic mimicry migration in gastric cancer cells, thus serving as a good target for cancer therapy. Upregulation of the HGF gene is observed in advanced stages of cancer, such as pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

General description

Recombinant, human hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is produced from the 728 amino acid residue variant of the human pre-pro-HGF protein 6 and expressed in a mouse myeloma cell line NSO.The HGF gene is mapped to human chromosome 7q21.1. The encoded protein is a mesenchymal-fibroblast derived cytokine.

Other Notes

The NSO-expressed recombinant HGF is greater than 95% heterodimeric HGF. The insect cell line-expressed recombinant HGF is a mixture of single chain HGF (predominant) with some heterodimeric HGF. Single chain HGF and heterodimeric HGF are equally active in in vitro assays.

Physical form

Lyophilized from a 0.2 µm filtered solution in phosphate buffered saline containing 50 µg of bovine serum albumin per 1µg of cytokine.