Basic and acidic fibroblast growth factors have recently being sequenced and cloned. They are known to be heat labile polypeptides of molecular weight 14,000-18,000. Their mitogenic activity has recently been demonstrated not just for fibroblast but now for glial cell, endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, chrondrocytes and a few other mesenchymal cells. Their origins are now known not to be restricted just to the brain and to tumors and a large variety of cells, but not all, synthesize these factors in culture. In bioassays they are shown to cause angiogenesis and a role in embryogenesis and differentiation has been reported. Although the heart is a mesenchymal organ, it was not clear to us what role FGF might have in the normal, adult, highly differentiated heart. However, we were able to purify either FGF or peptide of similar molecular weight and similar mitogenic and immunologic characteristics from the normal adult human left ventricle using the now standard techniques of heparin sepharose chromatography. We are now trying to find out if the protein levels of FGF are altered in ischemia and infarction.
