Description

Genorise Recombinant Rabbit HGF Protein Summary

Alternative names for HGF: Hepatocyte growth factor, Hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF)

Product Specifications

Background: 

Hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF) is a paracrine cellular growth, motility and morphogenic factor. It is secreted by mesenchymal cells and targets and acts primarily upon epithelial cells and endothelial cells, but also acts on haemopoietic progenitor cells. It has been shown to have a major role in embryonic organ development, in adult organ regeneration and in wound healing. HGF regulates cell growth, cell motility and morphogenesis by activating a tyrosine kinase signaling cascade after binding to the proto-oncogenic c-Met receptor (1). HGF is secreted by mesenchymal cell and acts as a multifunctional cytokine on cells of mainly epithelial origin. Its ability to stimulate mitogenesis, cell motility, and matrix invasion gives it a central role in angiogenesis, tumorogenesis, and tissue regeneration.

It is secreted as a single inactive polypeptide and is cleaved by serine protease into a 69-kDa alpha-chain and 34-kDa beta-chain. A disulfide bond between the alpha and beta chains produces the active, heterodimeric molecule. The protein belongs to the plasminogen subfamily of S1 peptidases but has no detectable protease activity (2). Human HGF plasmid DNA therapy of cardiomycytes is being examined as a potential treatment for coronary artery disease as well as treatment for the damage that occurs to the heart after myocardial infarction (3, 4). HGF may further play a role as an indicator for prognosis of chronicity for Chikungunya virus induced arthralgia. High HGF levels correlate with high rate of recovery (5).

Reference

1. DP Bottaro et al. (1991) Science 251 (4995) : 802.
2. T Nakamura et al. (1989) Nature 342 : 440.
3. ZJ Yang et al. (2008) Molecular Biology Reports 36(6) : 1323.
4. W Hahn et al. (2011) The Journal of Gene Medicine 13 (10) : 549.
5. A Chow et al. (2011) J Infect. Dis. 203(2) : 149.

Product Citations