Presence of basic fibroblast growth factor in the early Xenopus embryo
نویسنده
چکیده
Mesoderm-inducing activity can be extracted from Xenopus embryos, eggs or whole ovary. It binds to heparin and can be neutralized by heparin or anti-bFGF but not by anti-TGF/?. Two molecular forms can be identified by Western blotting and have molecular weights of about 19 and 14K. The content in embryos is about 7 units g~' (approximately 7 ng ml~*) which would be sufficient for it to be acting as an endogenous inducer of ventral mesoderm. Attempts to detect TGF/5-like inducing factors in embryos were not successful.
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