Abstract
Heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF) belongs to the EGF family of growth factors. It is biologically active either as a molecule anchored to the membrane or as a soluble form released by proteolytic cleavage of the extracellular domain. HB-EGF is involved in relevant physiological and pathological processes spanning from proliferation and apoptosis to morphogenesis. We outline here the main activities of HB-EGF in connection with normal or neoplastic differentiative or proliferative events taking place primitively in the hematopoietic microenvironment.
Highlights
Heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF) belongs to the EGF family of growth factors
Heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF, Figure 1) was first described by Higashiyama and Coll [1,2], in 1991/92, as a heavily glycosylated EGF family member of approximately 22 kD that was released by macrophage-like U-937 cell line, showing heparin affinity and eliciting mitogenic activities in BALB-3T3 fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells, but not in endothelial cells
We demonstrated that CXCL12 transactivates EGFR through ectodomain shedding of HB-EGF [18,67]
Summary
Heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF, Figure 1) was first described by Higashiyama and Coll [1,2], in 1991/92, as a heavily glycosylated EGF family member of approximately 22 kD that was released by macrophage-like U-937 cell line, showing heparin affinity and eliciting mitogenic activities in BALB-3T3 fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells, but not in endothelial cells. HB-EGF is involved in orchestrating inflammation [18], atheromatous plaque progression [8], and wound healing [7,8,35,36] It participates in stromal proliferation following decidualization [37], and in autocrine-paracrine loops, which are active in a number of epithelial neoplasias [8,18], by promoting tumor growth as a direct mitogen for neoplastic cells [8,18,38,39] or a microenvironment modifier by inducing angiogenesis [7,8,18,31,39,40,41] and recruiting a variety of cells [7,8,18,42,43,44]. Soluble and membrane-anchored HB-EGF bind to, and activate, EGFR [1,4], ErbB4 [19,55], and complexes of these receptors [53,54,56]. Therapeutic strategies targeting EGFR, ErbB2 [62] or HB-EGF [63,64,65] have been suggested or even used in medical practice
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