Description
Product Characteristics:
Potent mitogen for mature parenchymal hepatocyte cells, seems to be a hepatotrophic factor, and acts as a growth factor for a broad spectrum of tissues and cell types. Activating ligand for the receptor tyrosine kinase MET by binding to it and promoting its dimerization.
Subcellular location: Secreted
Synonyms: SF, HGFB, HPTA, F-TCF, DFNB39, Hepatocyte growth factor, Hepatopoietin-A, Scatter factor, HGF
Target Information: Hepatocyte growth factor regulates cell growth, cell motility, and morphogenesis by activating a tyrosine kinase signaling cascade after binding to the proto-oncogenic c-Met receptor. Hepatocyte growth factor is secreted by mesenchymal cells and acts as a multi-functional cytokine on cells of mainly epithelial origin. Its ability to stimulate mitogenesis, cell motility, and matrix invasion gives it a central role in angiogenesis, tumorogenesis, and tissue regeneration. It is secreted as a single inactive polypeptide and is cleaved by serine proteases into a 69-kDa alpha-chain and 34-kDa beta-chain. A disulfide bond between the alpha and beta chains produces the active, heterodimeric molecule. The protein belongs to the plasminogen subfamily of S1 peptidases but has no detectable protease activity. Alternative splicing of this gene produces multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]