AIMS The anti-cancer anthracycline doxorubicin (DOX) increases the risk of cardiac damage, indicating a need to protect the heart and still allow the benefits of drug treatment. Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) is cardioprotective against ischaemia-reperfusion injury. Our aim is to investigate: (i) the ability of FGF-2 to protect against DOX-induced cardiomyocyte damage and (ii) the contribut...

Pentosan polysulfate (PPS) is a heparin-like polysaccharide that can affect the binding interactions of fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) with its high-affinity receptors. Patients with angiogenic tumors frequently show high levels of FGF-2 in the circulation. Since FGF-2 is a heparin-binding angiogenic growth factor, PPS has been used successfully to block its activity in patients with angiogen...

PURPOSE Changes in gene expression were investigated after treatment of cultured human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells with vitreous. This may have implications for proliferative diseases such as proliferative vitreoretinopathy. METHODS Cells were cultured in the presence or absence of human vitreous, and gene expression was examined using the differential display polymerase chain reac...

Objective—The mitogenic response to the G protein–coupled receptor agonist thrombin in human vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) depends on release of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2). Yet, intracellular mechanisms triggering FGF-2 release are unknown. The present study investigates possible effects of cholesterol enrichment and depletion, which have been shown to influence FGF-2–dependent si...

PURPOSE Fibroblastic growth factor-10 (FGF-10) has an important role in type I epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) during the embryonic period of life (gastrulation). Since EMT has a critical role during cancer cells invasion and metastasis (type III) this study sought to investigate the possible role of FGF-10 in type III EMT by monitoring breast cancer cell lines' behavior by FGF-10 regul...

We have used the maternal effect mutant ichabod, which is deficient in maternal beta-catenin signaling, to test for the epistatic relationship between beta-catenin activation, FGF signaling and bozozok, squint and chordin expression. Injection of beta-catenin RNA into ichabod embryos can completely rescue normal development. By contrast, when FGF signaling is inhibited, beta-catenin did not ind...

Gastrulation is a critical step in vertebrate development, that depends on synergistic effects of several signalling molecules, including fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2). To follow this phenomenon in vitro we isolated rabbit inner cell masses (ICMs) at embryonic day 4 and we exposed ICM-derived cells to FGF-2. Then, we analysed the quantitative differences in rates of protein synthesis from ...

The inner ear develops from a patch of thickened cranial ectoderm adjacent to the hindbrain called the otic placode. Studies in a number of vertebrate species suggest that the initial steps in induction of the otic placode are regulated by members of the Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) family, and that inhibition of FGF signaling can prevent otic placode formation. To better understand the genet...

We have shown previously that FGF induces lens epithelial cells in explant culture to proliferate, migrate and differentiate into fibre cells in a progressive concentration-dependent manner. In situ, these processes occur in a distinct anterior-posterior pattern in clearly defined regions of the lens. Thus anterior-posterior differences in the bio-availability of FGF in the lens environment may...