Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF),also known as hepatopoietin-A and scatter factor, is a pleiotropic mitogen belonging to the peptidase S1 family (plasminogen subfamily). It is produced by mesenchymal cells and acts on epithelial cells, endothelial cells and haemopoietic progenitor cells. HGF binds to the proto-oncogenic c-Met receptor to activate a tyrosine kinase signaling cascade. It regulates cell growth, motility and morphogenesis, thus it plays a pivotal role in angiogenesis, tumorogenesis and tissue regeneration.
Recombinant human Hepatocyte Growth Factor (rhHGF) is produced in CHO cells and consists of two polypeptide chains (a-chain and ß-chain) held by a single disulfide bond resulting in the formation of a biologically active heterodimer. The a-chain consists of 463 amino acid residues and four kringle domains. The ß-chain consists of 234 amino acid residues. A fully biologically active molecule, rhHGF has a molecular mass of around 88-90 kDa analyzed by reducing SDS-PAGE and is obtained by chromatographic techniques at GenScript.