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.
The HGF gene spans ～70 kb and consists of 18 exons interrupted by 17 introns. The organization of the human HGF gene is highly homologous to that of human plasminogen. HGF maps to the long arm of human chromosome 7, 7q21.1.
HGF is a multifunctional cytokine that promotes mitogenesis, migration, invasion, and morphogenesis. It is a potent mitogen, stimulating the growth of hepatocytes, renal tubular epithelial cells, epidermal keratinocytes, epidermal melanocytes, Mv1Lu (mink lung epithelial cells), and BALB/MK (mouse keratinocytes). HGF inhibits the growth of B6/F1 (mouse melanoma) cells, KB (human squamous carcinoma) cells, and HepG2 (human hepatoma) cells. HGF is the ligand for the tyrosine kinase receptor encoded by the met proto-oncogene.
