Human Endothelial Cell Growth Factor: Cloning, Nucleotide Sequence, and Chromosome Localization.

Several of the endothelial cell polypeptide mitogens that have been described probably play a role in blood vessel homeostasis. Two overlapping complementary DNA clones encoding human endothelial cell growth factor (ECGF) were isolated from a human brain stem complementary DNA library. Southern blot analysis suggested that there is a single copy of the ECGF gene and that it maps to human chromosome 5 at bands 5q31.3 to 33.2. A 4.8-kilobase messenger RNA was present in human brain stem messenger RNA. The complete amino acid sequence of human ECGF was deduced from the nucleic acid sequence ofthese dones; it encompasses all the well-characterized acidic endothelial cell polypeptide mitogens described by several laboratories. The ECGF-encoding open reading frame is flanked by tranislation stop codons and provides no signal peptide or internal hydrophobic domain for the secretion ofECGF. This property is shared by human interleukin-1, which is approximately 30 percent homologous to ECGF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]