Members of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family have been clinically applied to the treatment of ischemic diseases because of their strong angiogenic actions. Although tissue ischemia is predominantly caused by atherosclerosis, the roles of endothelial FGF receptors (FGF-Rs) in atherosclerosis remain obscure. We generated endothelial cell (EC)-targeted constitutively active FGF-R2-overexpr...

Similarly to many protein toxins, the growth factors fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF-1) and FGF-2 translocate from endosomes into the cytosol. It was recently found that certain toxins are dependent on cytosolic Hsp90 for efficient translocation across the endosomal membrane. We therefore investigated the requirement for Hsp90 in FGF translocation. We found that low concentrations of the specif...

Fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-1(1-154), the precursor for acidic FGF-1(21-154), is a potent angiogenic polypeptide, the structure of which lacks a signal peptide sequence for secretion. To investigate the biological significance of this structural feature, we have attempted forced secretion of FGF-1 through fusion of the entire FGF-1 coding frame with the signal peptide (sp) from the hst/KS3 g...

A regulatory loop between the fibroblast growth factors FGF-8 and FGF-10 plays a key role in limb initiation and AER induction in vertebrate embryos. Here, we show that three WNT factors signaling through beta-catenin act as key regulators of the FGF-8/FGF-10 loop. The Wnt-2b gene is expressed in the intermediate mesoderm and the lateral plate mesoderm in the presumptive chick forelimb region. ...

background: scleroderma is a chronic connective tissue disease of unknown etiology. vitamin d and parathyroid hormone (pth) that play particular functions in calcium and phosphate homeostasis may be involved in the etiology of this disorder. klotho, the co-receptor of the fibroblast growth factor 23 (fgf-23), can interfere with calcium and phosphate metabolism. the purpose of this study was to ...

Fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21) appears to have an important role in glucose and lipid metabolism. FGF-21 secretion is mainly determined by nutritional status. The aim of this study was to measure basal and postprandial FGF-21 and postprandial change of FGF-21 concentration in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients and in healthy controls, and to investigate the differences between the g...

Acidic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-1), a prototype member of the heparin-binding growth factor family, influences proliferation, differentiation, and protein synthesis in different cell types. However, its possible role on lung extracellular matrix (ECM) metabolism has not been evaluated. In this study we examined the effects of FGF-1 and FGF-1 plus heparin on type I collagen, collagen-bindin...

BACKGROUND Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and methamphetamine use commonly affect neurocognitive (NC) functioning. We evaluated the relationships between NC functioning and two fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) in volunteers who differed in HIV serostatus and methamphetamine dependence (MAD). METHODS A total of 100 volunteers were categorized into four groups based on HIV serostatus and MA...

We previously reported that basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) activates p44/p42 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase resulting in the stimulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) release in osteoblast-like MC3T3-E1 cells and that FGF-2-activated p38 MAP kinase negatively regulates VEGF release. In the present study, we investigated the involvement of stress-activated protein ...

The potential role of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family during stretch-induced postnatal skeletal muscle hypertrophy was analyzed by using an avian wing-weighting model. After 2 or 11 days of weighted stretch, anterior latissimus dorsi (ALD) muscles were, on average, 34 (P < 0.01) and 85% (P < 0.01) larger, respectively, than unweighted ALD control muscles. By using quantitative RT-PCR,...