Hepatocyte Growth Factor is a heparin binding protein that stimulates proliferation, migration and morphological differentiation of a variety of cellular targets. This signaling is important for normal development of liver, placenta, neural development, and contributes to cytoprotection and repair in the kidney, liver and lung tissues. Our interest has focused on the Hepatocyte Growth Factor and its interaction with MET. Heparin binding to Hepatocyte Growth Factor has been implicated in ligand-induced dimerization of the Met receptor. Mutations were made in the N-terminal domain of Hepatocyte Growth Factor based on contacts in dimeric crystal structures in an attempt to inhibit dimerization and engineer antagonists.
