HGF, Mouse, ,Tag Free

Hepatocyte Growth Factor(HGF), also known as Scatter Factor and Hepatopoietin A, is a pleiotropic protein in the Plasminogen subfamily of S1  peptidases. It is a multidomain molecule that includes an N-terminal PAN/APPLE-like domain, four Kringle domains, and a serine proteinase-like domain  that has no detectable protease activity (1 - 5). Mouse HGF is secreted as an inactive 728 amino acid (aa) single chain propeptide. It is cleaved after the  fourth Kringle domain by a serine protease to form bioactive disulfide-linked HGF with a 60 kDa alpha  and 30 kDa beta  chain. Alternate splicing generates  an isoform that lacks the peptidase and the second, third, and fourth Kringle domains. Mouse HGF shares 91% - 95% aa sequence identity with bovine, canine, feline, human, and rat HGF. HGF binds heparan-sulfate proteoglycans and the widely expressed receptor tyrosine kinase, HGF R/c-MET (6, 7). HGF-dependent c-MET activation is implicated in the development of many human cancers (8). HGF regulates epithelial morphogenesis by inducing cell scattering and branching tubulogenesis (9, 10). HGF induces the up-regulation of integrin alpha 2 beta 1 in epithelial cells by a selective increase in alpha 2 gene transcription (11). This integrin serves as a collagen I receptor, and its blockade disrupts epithelial cell branching tubulogenesis (11, 12). HGF can also alter epithelium morphology by the induction of nectin-1 alpha  ectodomain shedding, an adhesion protein component of adherens junctions (13). In  the thyroid, HGF induces the proliferation, motility, and loss of differentiation markers of thyrocytes and inhibits TSH-stimulated iodine uptake (14).

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8. Corso, S. et al. (2005) Trends Mol. Med. 11:284.

9. Maeshima, A. et al. (2000) Kid. Int. 58:1511.

10. Montesano, R. et al. (1991) Cell 67:901. 

11. Chiu, S-J. et al. (2002) J. Biomed. Sci. 9:261. 

12. Saelman, E.U.M. et al. (1995) J. Cell Sci. 108:3531. 

13. Tanaka, Y. et al. (2002) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 299:472.

14. Mineo, R. et al. (1994) Endocrinology 145:4355.