Basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-basic), also known as FGF-2, is expressed by endothelial cells and is a mediator of angiogenesis. FGF-basic also has cardioprotective functions during heart injury. FGF-basic is a critical component for embryonic stem cell culture systems and is necessary for maintaining cells in an undifferentiated state. Degredation of the full length FGF-basic N-terminus results in a truncated FGF-basic 147aa protein, when the protein is isolated from biological sources. The N-terminus extensions influence the localization of FGF-basic within the cell, but do not affect the biological activity of FGF-basic. Therefore, there are no detectable differences in biological activity between the full length FGF-basic 154aa and the truncated FGF-basic 147aa recombinant proteins.
Bioactivity Assay:NR6R-3T3 cell proliferation; ED50 =5 ng/mL; Bioactivity =2.0 x 10^5 units/mg