Heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor : characterization of rat and mouse cDNA clones, protein domain conservation across species, and transcript expression in tissues

摘要: Clones were obtained that encode the rat and mouse forms of heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF), a potent mitogen for smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts keratinocytes is proposed to be derived from transmembrane precursor. Within HB-EGF precursor sequences predicted these cDNAs, region corresponding secreted ("mature") was found represent one least well conserved areas when compared human or monkey (73 - 76% sequence identity). Regions high conservation included juxtamembrane domains, as within "mature" factor. Northern blotting experiments using clones probes revealed transcript expression in multiple tissues, particularly lung, skeletal muscle, brain, heart.