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Human Acidic Fibroblast Growth Factor (human + acidic_fibroblast_growth_factor)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Chemistry	60%

Selected Abstracts

Alternative type I and I, turn conformations in the ,8/,9 ,-hairpin of human acidic fibroblast growth factor

PROTEIN SCIENCE, Issue 3 2002
Jaewon Kim
Abstract Human acidic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-1) has a ,-trefoil structure, one of the fundamental protein superfolds. The X-ray crystal structures of wild-type and various mutant forms of FGF-1 have been solved in five different space groups: C2, C2221, P21 (four molecules/asu), P21 (three molecules/asu), and P212121. These structures reveal two characteristically different conformations for the ,8/,9 ,-hairpin comprising residue positions 90,94. This region in the wild-type FGF-1 structure (P21, four molecules/asu), a his-tagged His93,Gly mutant (P21, three molecules/asu) and a his-tagged Asn106,Gly mutant (P212121) adopts a 3:5 ,-hairpin known as a type I (1,4) G1 ,-bulge (containing a type I turn). However, a his-tagged form of wild-type FGF-1 (C2221) and a his-tagged Leu44,Phe mutant (C2) adopt a 3:3 ,-hairpin (containing a type I, turn) for this same region. A feature that distinguishes these two types of ,-hairpin structures is the number and location of side chain positions with eclipsed C, and main-chain carbonyl oxygen groups (, , +60°). The effects of glycine mutations upon stability, at positions within the hairpin, have been used to identify the most likely structure in solution. Type I, turns in the structural data bank are quite rare, and a survey of these turns reveals that a large percentage exhibit crystal contacts within 3.0 Å. This suggests that many of the type I, turns in X-ray structures may be adopted due to crystal packing effects. [source]

Structure of a highly stable mutant of human fibroblast growth factor 1

ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 1 2009
Anna Szlachcic
Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) are involved in diverse cellular processes such as cell migration, angiogenesis, osteogenesis, wound healing and embryonic and foetal development. Human acidic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-1) is the only member of the FGF family that binds with high affinity to all four FGF receptors and thus is considered to be the human mitogen with the broadest specificity. However, pharmacological applications of FGF-1 are limited owing to its low stability. It has previously been reported that the introduction of single mutations can significantly improve the stability of FGF-1 and its resistance to proteolytic degradation. Here, the structure of the Q40P/S47I/H93G triple mutant of FGF-1, which exhibits much higher stability, a prolonged half-life and enhanced mitogenic activity, is presented. Compared with the wild-type structure, three localized conformational changes in the stable triple mutant were observed, which is in agreement with the perfect energetic additivity of the single mutations described in a previous study. The huge change in FGF-1 stability (the denaturation temperature increased by 21.5,K, equivalent to ,,Gden = 24.3,kJ,mol,1) seems to result from the formation of a short 310 -helix (position 40), an improvement in the propensity of amino acids to form ,-sheets (position 47) and the rearrangement of a local hydrogen-bond network (positions 47 and 93). [source]

Protective effect of non-mitogenic human acidic fibroblast growth factor on hepatocyte injury

HEPATOLOGY RESEARCH, Issue 10 2007
Hua Xu
Aim:, To study whether non-mitogenic human acidic fibroblast growth factor (nm-haFGF) has protective effects on H2O2 -induced hepatocyte injury in vitro and CCl4 -induced hepatocyte injury in vivo. Methods:, (i) HL-7702 hepatocytes were incubated with different concentrations of nm-haFGF for 12 h, and then the activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in culture medium was detected, and genomic DNA electrophoresis analysis was observed after being exposed to H2O2 (8 mmol/L) for 4 h. Proximately, apoptotic rates and protein expressions of Bcl-2 and Bax of HL-7702 cell were detected after being exposed to H2O2 (0.2 mmol/L) for 20 h. (ii) Being injected intraperitoneally with nm-haFGF, mice were treated with CCl4 intraperitoneally to induce hepatic injury. Twenty-four hours later, serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were measured and histopathologic changes were evaluated. Results:, (i) In vitro tests: LDH activities and apoptotic rates decreased, the protein expression of Bcl-2 increased and Baxdecreased in nm-haFGF-treated groups at the concentrations of 100 150 and 200 ng/mL, compared with that in the model control group, which was treated with H2O2 alone. The genomic DNA remained nearly intact at the concentrations of 150 and 200 ng/mL. (ii) In vivo tests: serum ALT and AST in nm-haFGF-treated groups (10 ,g/kg and 20 ,g/kg) were much lower as compared to the model control group, which was treated with CCl4 alone. Histological examination showed that nm-haFGF markedly ameliorated hepatocytes vacuolation, cloudy swelling and inflammatory cells infiltration induced by CCl4. Conclusion:, nm-haFGF had protective effects against H2O2 -induced hepatocyte injury in vitro and CCl4 -induced acute liver injury in vivo. [source]