Engineering recombinant growth factors: a tool for in vitro mesenchymal cell commitment

Growth factors (GFs) are part of a large number of polypeptides that transm it signals affecting cellular activities. Cells may communicate with each o ther through direct molecular interactions involving their cell membranes, as a result of the movement of certain molecules as GFs. They are produced by the cells and can act within the cell or in vicinal or remote cells to m odulate their activities by reacting with specific receptors th rough eithe r autocrine, paracrine, endocrine, juxtacrine, intracrine or extracellular matrix mediated. In the last recent years, our group have been working on g enetically engineering GFs which incorporate a collagen-binding domain deri ved from the von Willebrand Factor (vWF). These fused proteins exhibit func tional properties that do not exist in nature and have allow us to investig ate their potential important implications in terms of developing strategic biomatrices for tissue repair.