title: Human fibroblast growth factor-18 stimulates fibroblast cell proliferation and is mapped to chromosome 14p11.
abstract: The fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) play crucial roles in controlling embryonic development, cell growth, morphogenesis, and tissue repair in animals. Furthermore, FGFs may have a role in angiogenesis and may be involved in tumor invasion and metastasis. Here, we present the cloning and sequence of human FGF-18, a novel member of the FGF family. Sequence comparison indicates that FGF-18 is conserved with the other FGFs and most homologous to FGF-8 among the FGF family members. We showed that human FGF-18 was expressed primarily in the heart, skeletal muscle, and pancreas, and at lower levels in the other tissues. FGF-18 was also expressed at low levels in certain cancer cell lines. FGF-18 contains a typical signal peptide and was secreted when it was transfected into mammalian cells. Recombinant FGF-18 protein stimulated proliferation in the fibroblast cell line NIH3T3 in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting that FGF-18 is a functional growth factor. Finally, the FGF-18 gene was evolutionarily conserved, and localized to human chromosome 14p11.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Functional Genomics, Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, California 91320, USA.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Y P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Qiu
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002883:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 14; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D005346:Fibroblast Growth Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000187:drug effects*; D018628:Gene Dosage; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C113569:fibroblast growth factor 18; D005346:Fibroblast Growth Factors