Human fibroblast growth factor-18 stimulates fibroblast cell proliferationand is mapped to chromosome 14p11

The fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) play crucial roles in controlling embr yonic development, cell growth, morphogenesis, and tissue repair in animals . Furthermore, FGFs may have a role in angiogenesis and may be involved in tumor invasion and metastasis, Here, we present the cloning and sequence of human FGF-18, a novel member of the FGF family. Sequence comparison indica tes that FGF-18 is conserved with the other FGFs and most homologous to FGF -8 among the FGF family members. We showed that human FGF-18 was expressed primarily in the heart, skeletal muscle, and pancreas, and at lower levels in the other tissues. FGP-18 was also expressed at low levels in certain ca ncer cell lines. FGF-18 contains a typical signal peptide and was secreted when it was transfected into mammalian cells, Recombinant FGF-18 protein st imulated proliferation in the fibroblast cell line NIH3T3 in a dose-depende nt manner, suggesting that FGF-18 is a functional growth factor. Finally, t he FGF-18 gene was evolutionarily conserved, and localized to human chromos ome 14p11.