Addition Of Fibroblast Growth Factor Research Articles

Effect of substrata and fibroblast growth factor on the proliferation in vitro of bovine aortic endothelial cells.

The hypothesis that, in the case of clonal or low-density cultures, cells which do not readily proliferate are those that do not produce an extracellular matrix (ECM), while those that proliferate actively are cells that have retained their ability to produce it, has been tested using low-density vascular endothelial cell cultures maintained on either plastic or ECM-coated dishes and exposed to various combinations of media and sera. Proliferation of low-density vascular endothelial cell cultures seeded on plastic and exposed to DMEM, RPMI-1640, or medium 199 plus thymidine is a function of the batch of calf serum used to supplement the various media. In all three cases, such cultures proliferated at a slow rate and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) greatly accelerated their proliferation. In contrast, when similar cultures were seeded on ECM-coated dishes, they actively proliferated regardless of the batch of calf serum to which they were exposed. FGF was no longer required in order for cultures to become confluent. In the case of cultures exposed to RPMI-1640 or medium 199 plus thymidine, it was even toxic. When cultures were exposed to either medium 199 or Waymouth medium, cells did not proliferate, regardless of the substrate (either plastic or ECM) upon which they were maintained and of the batch of serum to which they were exposed. Addition of FGF to such media had no effect. It is therefore likely that nutrient limitations in both of these media restrict the ability of low-density vascular endothelial cells to respond to the mitogenic stimuli provided by either serum or FGF. These restrictions cannot be relieved by maintaining cells on ECM-coated dishes, and modifications of the nutrient composition of both media is required in order to allow cells to respond to either FGF or serum when maintained on plastic or to serum alone when maintained on ECM. These results suggest that, when low-density cell cultures are maintained on plastic and exposed to an adequate medium, their proliferation will be a function of both serum and FGF. When maintained on ECM, their proliferation will depend only on serum. It is therefore possible that the inability of serum to stimulate optimal cell proliferation when cells are maintained on plastic results from an inability of the cells to produce an ECM, and that FGF could induce such production.

Extracellular matrix and control of proliferation of vascular endothelial cells.

Bovine vascular endothelial cells plated at low cell density in the presence of high (10%) concentrations of serum and maintained on plastic tissue culture dishes proliferate slowly. If the cultures were exposed to fibroblast growth factors (FGF), the cells proliferated actively and, after a week, a monolayer composed of closely apposed and highly contact-inhibited mononucleated cells formed. In contrast to cultures maintained on plastic, cultures maintained on dishes coated with an extracellular matrix produced by corneal endothelial cells proliferated rapidly and no longer required FGF to reach confluence. Addition of FGF to such cultures did not decrease the mean doubling time, which was already at a minimum (18 h), nor did it result in a higher final cell density, which was already at a maximum (700-1,000 cells/mm(2)). Likewise, although human umbilical vein endothelial cells plated at low density on plastic did not proliferate, they proliferated rapidly when plated on dishes coated with an extracellular matrix. However, unlike bovine vascular endothelial cells, they still required FGF if the cultures were to become confluent. The ability of plasma vs. serum to sustain cell proliferation was analyzed using low density bovine-vascular endothelial cell cultures maintained either on plastic or on dishes coated with an extracellular matrix. Cells plated on plastic had a lower growth rate when exposed to plasma than to serum. In both cases, FGF was required for the cultures to become confluent. In contrast, when cells were plated on an extracellular matrix, they proliferated equally well, regardless of whether they were exposed to plasma or serum, and no longer required FGF to become confluent. Because the growth rate of the cultures maintained on an extracellular matrix was a direct function of the serum or plasma concentrations to which they were exposed, it is likely that the extracellular matrix had a permissive rather than a direct mitogenic effect on the cells. Therefore, one can conclude that the simple change of substrate from plastic to extracellular matrix will restore the sensitivity of vascular endothelial cells to physiological agents present in plasma or serum.

Do plasma and serum have different abilities to promote cell growth?

The abilities of plasma and serum to support the growth of vascular smooth muscle cells maintained on uncoated tissue culture dishes or dishes coated with an extracellular matrix (ECM) have been compared. Vascular smooth muscle cells maintained on plastic dishes and exposed to plasma proliferate poorly; when exposed to serum they proliferate actively. Addition of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) incrases the growth rate of the cultures in both cases. In contrast, when vascular smooth muscle cells are maintained on an ECM, they proliferate equally well exposed to either plasma or serum. Because the cultures had an average doubling time (15 hr) that was already at a minimum, FGF no longer had an effect on vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation. These results raise the possibility that the lack of response of vascular smooth muscle cells, as well as that of other cell types in vitro, to plasma factors is not an intrinsic property of the cells but is rather due to the substrate upon which the cells rest. Because cells maintained on an ECM respond to plasma factors, it is likely that the close contact of the cells with the ECM restores their sensitivity to physiological factors present in plasma.

Fibroblast growth factor causes an early increase in phosphorylation of a membrane protein in quiescent 3T3 cells

THE regulatory systems controlling cell division have not been identified, but it has been shown that growth factors such as epidermal growth factor, fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and serum initiate rapid changes in cellular metabolism, probably involving post-transcriptional control mechanisms(1-5). As phosphorylation has been shown to be an important regulatory mechanism in several metabolic pathways, we initiated experiments to determine whether factors which stimulate DNA synthesis also stimulate endogenous phosphorylation. We find mat, within 5 min of addition of FGF or serum to (32)P-labelled Swiss 3T3 cells, there is a specific increase in the phosphorylation of a membrane protein with an apparent molecular weight of 33,000. Experiments with isolated cell fractions demonstrate that the phosphorylation of this protein is stimulated by cyclic AMP. This rapid and specific response to mitogens raises the possibility that this phosphorylation might be part of the initial, cellular signal for DNA synthesis.

Regulation of the cell cycle of 3T3 cells in culture by a surface membrane-enriched cell fraction.

Addition of a suspension of a surface membrane enriched fraction prepared from confluent 3T3 cells to sparse 3T3 cells in culture results in a concentration dependent and saturable decrease in the rate of DNA synthesis. The inhibition of cell growth by membranes resembles the inhibition of cell growth observed at confluent cell densities by a number of criteria: 1) In both cases the cells are arrested in the G1 portion of the cell cycle; 2) the inhibition by membranes or by high local cell density can to a large extent be compensated for by raising the serum concentration or by addition of fibroblast growth factor plus dexamethasone. Membranes prepared from sparse cultures inhibit less well than membranes from confluent cultures in a manner which suggests that binding of membranes to cells is not by itself sufficient to cause inhibition of cell growth. The inhibitory activity has a subcellular distribution similar to phosphodiesterase (a plasma membrane marker) and appears to reside in one or more intrinsic membrane components. Maximally, membranes can arrest about 40% of the cell population in each cell cycle. Plasma membranes obtained from sparse 3T3 cells are less inhibitory than membranes obtained from confluent cells. This suggests either that the inhibitory component(s) in the plasma membrane responsible for growth inhibition may be in part induced by high cell density, or that this component(s) may be lost from these membranes during purification.

Stimulation of corneal endothelial cell proliferation in vitro by fibroblast and epidermal growth factors

Bovine corneal endothelial cell culture has been developed to study the factors controlling corneal endothelium proliferation. Cells were prepared by scraping the posterior corneal surface gently with a grooved director. The endothelial segments were then suspended in DME with 10% calf serum and 100 ng/ml of fibroblast growth factor (FGF). After 4 days, corneal endothelial cells attached to the tissue culture dish, giving rise to colonies of small, rapidly dividing cells. Fixed cultures stained with silver nitrate to accentuate the inter-cellular function revealed the closely apposed nature of the polygonal cells within the monolayer, and the ovoid nucleus positioned eccentrically in each cell. This morphology is similar to that observed with the corneal endothelium in vivo. The ultrastructure of the bovine corneal endothelial cells grown in vitro was typical of cells with high metabolic rates. Cells had numerous mitochondria, polysomes and microfilament bundles. Ultrastructure and histochemical staining of the culture with alcian green demonstrated that the cells maintained in culture produced extracellular collagenous material. Both fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) are mitogenic in vitro for endothelial cells derived from bovine corneas. Cells maintained at low density in the presence of 5% bovine plasma divided with a doubling time of 48 hr, but addition of either EGF or FGF reduced the cell doubling time to 20–24 hr. The final cell density reached in the presence of either growth factor was ten times that of cells maintained in 5% plasma alone. In the presence of 10% calf serum, corneal endothelial cells reached a final density identical to that obtained in 1% serum plus FGF and addition of FGF to 10% serum resulted in a final density three times higher than that observed with 10% serum alone. Inclusion of FGF in DME medium containing serum permitted cloning of corneal endothelial cells from cultures seeded at low density (0·6 cells/cm 2). The half-maximal response for the stimulation of proliferation with EGF was seen at 1·5 × 10 −10 m and with FGF at 6 × 10 −10 m. Both EGF and FGF stimulated DNA synthesis in resting corneal endothelial cells, with EGF effective from 1·5 × 10 −15 to 1·5 × 10 −13 m and FGF effective from 7 × 10 −12 to 7 × 10 −9 m. Autoradiography demonstrated that FGF and EGF, like serum, stimulated the cell population as a whole to initiate DNA synthesis.

Clonal growth of bovine vascular endothelial cells: fibroblast growth factor as a survival agent.

Bovine vascular endothelial cells do not grow when cultured at low density unless fibroblast growth factor is included in the culture medium. When endothelial cells obtained from the intimal surface of fetal and adult aortas were seeded at low density (8 cells per cm2), they formed small colonies of large, irregular, vacuolated cells. At very low density (0.3 cells per cm2) they did not survive. The addition of fibroblast growth factor to endothelial cells maintained at such low densities resulted in the formation of vigorously growing colonies of small, uniform cells. Electron microscopy showed that the cultured endothelial cells had the fine structure characteristics of endothelial cells. Immunofluorescence microscopy revealed antihemophilic factor (Factor VIII) antigen in the cells. Our results demonstrated that fibroblast growth factor permits the survival of endothelial cells plated at extremely low cell density. With the use of fibroblast growth factor, endothelial cell clones are easily produced.

Control of growth of benzo(a)pyrene-transformed 3T3 cells.

The growth controls observed in benzo[a]pyrene-transformed 3T3 cells (BP3T3) are compared with those of virus-transformed and normal 3T3 cells. Superficially, the chemically transformed BP3T3 cells have the same behavior as virus-transformed SV3T3 cells. Both grow to high cell density in culture medium with 10% serum, both form colonies in Methocel, and both are tumorigenic. Closer examination, however, has disclosed that BP3T3 cells exhibit "normal" growth controls at low serum concentrations. In contrast to the behavior of SV3T3 cells, the initiation of DNA synthesis in BP3T3 cells is still dependent on a serum factor. If BP3T3 cells are grown in medium with 0.2% serum, the cells become quiescent, with growth arrested in the Gu or G0 phase of the cell cycle. The addition of serum or the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) to such quiescent cells leads to the initiation of DNA synthesis and the resumption of growth. As with normal 3T3 cells, if the growth rate of BP3T3 cells is limited by a suboptimal concentration of serum, the growth rate of the cells is increased by the addition of FGF. Also, BP3T3 cells show density-dependent regulation of growth, if the medium contains a low concentration of serum. BP3T3 cells, therefore, have the behavior of "transformed" cells when cultured in medium with 10% serum, but behave as "normal" cells in medium with low serum. In comparison with normal 3T3 cells, the difference in growth behavior of BP3T3 cells appears to be due to a substantial decrease in the cells' requirement for a serum growth factor of the FGF type. Exploration of possible causes of this substantial decrease indicates that the primary cause is a lower rate of depletion of the serum growth factor from the culture medium by BP3T3 cells. The decrease in rate of depletion is sufficient to account for the uncontrolled growth of BP3T3 cells in medium with 10% serum. It is suggested that a decreased rate of depletion of a growth factor may contribute to tumorigenicity of cells in vivo.

Mitogenic effect of fibroblast growth factor on early passage cultures of human and murine fibroblasts.

Fibroblast growth factor (FGF), a polypeptide that has been shown to stimulate division in 3T3 cells, was tested for mitogenic effects on diploid, early-passage cells from human and murine sources. The quantitative assay of [3H]thymidine incorporation into acid-insoluble material showed that FGF at low concentrations (10 minus 9 M) was more effective than additional serum for provoking the initiation of DNA synthesis in human foreskin fibroblasts or mouse fibroblasts maintained in 5 or 10% serum, respectively. The growth of the human fibroblasts was twice as fast in the presence of FGF plus 10% calf serum as it was in the presence of 10% calf serum or 20% fetal calf serum alone. The addition of FGF to primary cultures of mouse fibroblasts in 0.4% serum resulted in a twofold increase in cell number compared to controls. In contrast to results obtained with 3T3 cells, neither insulin nor a glucocorticoid potentiated the effects of FGF on either human or mouse cells.