Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Introduction Of Human Acidic Fibroblast Growth Factor (Fgf1) Variant With Increased Stability And Bioactivity, Azadeh Tavousi Tabatabaei

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Human acidic Fibroblast Growth Factor 1 (FGF-1) involves in a broad spectrum of biological processes, including cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, migration, angiogenesis, wound healing, and embryonic development. hFGF1 non-selectively binds to cell surface hFGF receptor isoforms to elicit these cell-signaling processes. Since hFGF1 plays a significant role in tissue repair activity, that is a prime candidate for novel wound healing therapeutics. However, hFGF1 has been found to unfold near physiological temperature due to a strong electrostatic repulsion created by a dense cluster of positively charged amino acids near the c-terminus. The problem not only leads to proteolytic degradation of the …