Research Capsule The Fibroblast Growth Factor Family

Acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors are structurally related monomeric proteins which have been purified from a diverse set of vertebrate tissues. These prototype FGFs2 are mitogenic toward a broad spectrum of meso-derm- and ectoderm-derived cells and can also serve as trophic factors and as mediators of developmental path-ways in a variety of in vitro and in vivo systems. Within the past 3 years, the FGF family has expanded to include proteins encoded by at least seven distinct genes. Addi-tionally, genes encoding FGF receptors have been re-cently characterized. I shall briefly review what is known concerning the structures of FGFs and their receptors together with experiments which are leading us toward an understand-ing of FGF biological functions