Granulocyte Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF) was initially characterized as a growth factor that can support the in vitro colony formation of granulocyte-macrophage progenitors. It is produced by a number of different cell types (including activated T cells, B cells, macrophages, mast cells, endothelial cells and fibroblasts) in response to cytokine and other immune and inflammatory stimuli. Besides granulocyte-macrophage progenitors, GM-CSF is also a growth factor for erythroid, megakaryocyte and eosinophil progenitors. On mature hematopoietic cells, GM-CSF is a survival factor that activates effector functions of granulocytes, monocytes/macrophages and eosinophils.
Recombinant Mouse GM-CSF produced in E.coli is a single non-glycosylated polypeptide chain containing 125 amino acids. A fully biologically active molecule, rmGM-CSF has a molecular mass of 14.3 kD analyzed by reducing SDS-PAGE and is obtained by chromatographic techniques at GenScript.