OBJECTIVE Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) stimulates vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) migration. We determined whether bFGF increases SMC reactive oxygen-species (ROS) and studied the role of ROS for SMC migration. METHODS AND RESULTS bFGF rapidly increased rat SMC ROS formation and migration through pathways sensitive to inhibition of NADPH oxidases, PI3-kinase, protein kinase C, and ...

Hypertrophic scars (HTS) and keloids are challenging problems. Their pathogenesis results from an overproduction of fibroblasts and excessive deposition of collagen. Studies suggest a possible anti-scarring effect of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) during wound healing, but the precise mechanisms of bFGF are still unclear. In view of this, we investigated the therapeutic effects of bFGF o...

OBJECTIVE To determine the vascular and collagen effects of supplemental basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in irradiated porcine skin flaps. INTERVENTION Animals were subjected to 2 fractions of 650 cGy orthovoltage radiation. Following this, the skin flaps were administered bFGF intracuticularly for 6 days before and after surgery. The animals were sacrificed 3 weeks after the start of b...

Intracellular sugars are more reactive glycosylating agents than glucose. In vitro nonezymatic glycosylation of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) by fructose, glucose-6-phosphate (G6P), or glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P) reduced high affinity heparin-binding activity of recombinant bFGF by 73, 77, and 89%, respectively. Mitogenic activity was reduced 40, 50, and 90%. To investigate the eff...

Cardiac stem cells (CSCs) are important for improving cardiac function following myocardial infarction, with CSC migration to infarcted or ischemic myocardium important for cardiac regeneration. Strategies to improve cell migration may improve the efficiency of myocardial regeneration. Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is an essential molecule in cell migration, but the endogenous bFGF leve...

Behavioural sensitization to amphetamine (AMPH) requires action of the drug in the ventral midbrain where dopamine (DA) neurons are located. In vivo studies suggest that AMPH sensitization requires enhanced expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in the nucleus of midbrain astrocytes. One idea is that the AMPH-induced increase in bFGF expression in astrocytes leads to enhanced secre...

To increase our understanding of the potential role of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in malignant progression of prostate cancer, we determined the production of bFGF, the expression of FGF receptor (flg), and the response to exogenous bFGF in LNCaP, DU 145, and PC 3 cells. We observed that these three prostate cancer cell lines, which differed in their dependence on androgens for growt...

PURPOSE In this study, we evaluated a possible effect of acidic and basic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF, bFGF) on the proliferation of human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells in culture. As the RPE is the primary source for bFGF in the retina, such an effect would suggest autocrinic actions of FGFs. METHODS Primary cultures of human and porcine RPE and an established human RPE cell line...

Vascular endothelial cells (ECs) seeded sparsely on extracellular matrix (ECM) will proliferate in the absence of exogenous basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). This ECM will also stimulate neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells in the absence of exogenous growth factors. We have previously shown that bFGF is found in subendothelial ECM (Vlodavsky, I., J. Folkman, R. Sullivan, R. Fridman, R. Ishai-M...

In order for human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to be cultured on mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEFs) feeder cells, continuous basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) supplementation is required. However, the role of bFGF in a culture system using human-derived feeder cells has not been evaluated until now. In this study, we propagated the widely used hESC lines, H1 and HSF6, on human placenta-deri...