Fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) signaling is involved in angiogenesis, vascular contractility, and cardiac hypertrophy. Mice lacking a functional FGF2 gene (FGF2(-/-)) are hypotensive, but the primary physiological role of FGF2 in cardiovascular homeostasis remained unknown. Using a chicken FGF2 (cFGF2) transgene under control of the Wnt-1 promotor, we selectively re-expressed FGF2 in the dev...

Stromal cells and osteoblasts play major roles in forming and modulating the bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic microenvironment. We have reported that FGF2 compromises stromal cell support of normal hematopoiesis. Here, we examined the effects of FGF2 on the leukemia microenvironment. In vitro, FGF2 significantly decreased the number of stromal-dependent and stromal-independent G0-leukemia cells i...

We recently found that integrin αvβ3 binds to fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-αvβ31 (FGF1), and that the integrin-binding defective FGF1 mutant (Arg-50 to glutamic acid, R50E) is defective in signalling and antagonistic to FGF1 signalling. R50E suppressed angiogenesis and tumour growth, suggesting that R50E has potential as a therapeutic. However, FGF1 is unstable, and we had to express R50E in ...

In the present work, we investigated the effect of 17β-estradiol (E₂) and basic fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) on the lactotroph cell-proliferative response and the related membrane-initiated signaling pathway. Anterior pituitary mixed-cell cultures of random, cycling 3-mo-old female rats were treated with 10 nM E₂, E₂ membrane-impermeable conjugated BSA (E₂-BSA), PPT (ERα agonist), and DPN ...

BACKGROUND Preconditioning the heart before an ischemic insult has been shown to protect against contractile dysfunction, arrhythmias, and infarction. Pharmacological studies have suggested that fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) is involved in cardioprotection. However, because of the number of FGFs expressed in the heart and the promiscuity of FGF ligand-receptor interactions, the specific rol...

Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) is a pleiotropic growth factor exhibiting a variety of biological activities. In this article, we studied the capacity of FGF2 purified with or without heparin affinity chromatography to self-associate. Analyzing the NMR HSQC spectra for different FGF2 concentrations, heparin-affinity purified FGF2 showed perturbations that indicate dimerization and are a highe...

PURPOSE To examine the role of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) in regulating lens cell proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in response to injury. METHODS The amount of FGF2 protein was determined in healing, injured rat lenses by enzyme immunoassay. The effects of FGF2 and transforming growth factor beta2 (TGFbeta2) on cell proliferation of alphaTN4 cells (a mouse lens...

After traumatic spinal cord injury, grossly injured blood vessels leak blood and fluid into the parenchyma, leading to a large cystic cavity. Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) can reduce immediate vasoconstriction of vessels in the tissue surrounding the primary injury and promote angiogenesis. A localized delivery system would both achieve restricted delivery of FGF2 to the spinal cord and lim...

The biological response of cells to fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) depends on heparan sulphate glycosaminoglycans sharing particular structural motifs. Heparin induced FGF dimerization has been suggested to mediate receptor dimerization and activation. Here we demonstrate that heparin-derived oligosaccharides that promote receptor binding and activation specifically induce the dimerization of...

Basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF2) is a wide-spectrum mitogenic, angiogenic, and neurotrophic factor that is expressed at low levels in many tissues and cell types and reaches high concentrations in brain and pituitary. FGF2 has been implicated in a multitude of physiological and pathological processes, including limb development, angiogenesis, wound healing, and tumor growth, but its physio...