Bovine pituitary heparin-binding fibroblast growth factors: acidic and basic forms.

1. Bovine pituitaries contain both acidic and basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF). Both forms can be prepared by heparin-affinity chromatography. The complete separation of acidic FGF from basic contaminants requires an additional isoelectric focusing step. In contrast, heparin-affinity chromatography provides basic FGF free of acidic FGF. 2. Acidic FGF was characterized by its isoelectric point (4.5-6.4) molecular weight (15-18 kDa), chromatographic behavior and reaction with antisera specific for brain acidic FGF. The results suggest that there is a close relationship between pituitary and brain acidic FGF. They also confirm our previous results obtained by preparing acidic FGF through several isoelectric focusing steps and establish that bovine pituitary indeed contains acidic FGF. 3. Basic FGF was characterized by its molecular weight (15-17 kDa), pI (9.0-10), chromatographic behavior, electrophoretic mobility and reaction with specific antiserum. It seems to be similar to the material already described by other groups.