Keratinocyte derived T-cell growth factor (KTGF) is identical to granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF).

Keratinocyte derived T-cell growth factor was initially described as a product of cultured neonatal keratinocytes and keratinocyte cell lines that induced the proliferation of HT-2 cells, a murine T-cell line that responds to IL-2 and IL-4 by incorporating 3H-Thymidine. Subsequently, KTGF has been purified to high specific activity and found to be distinct from IL-2 and IL-4 by a variety of biochemical, immunologic, and immunochemical criteria. Because it was found that certain HT-2 cell lines also proliferated in response to GM-CSF, the present study asked whether KTGF was related to GM-CSF. In this study, we demonstrate that antibodies to recombinant murine GM-CSF completely neutralize the capacity of KTGF to induce HT-2 proliferation without interfering with IL-2 or IL-4 induced HT-2 proliferation. Furthermore, poly-A+ RNA homologous to murine GM-CSF cDNA as judged by S1 nuclease analysis was detected in Pam 212 cells, and protein serologically homologous to GM-CSF was found in Pam 212 conditioned medium. We conclude that KTGF is identical to GM-CSF. The T-cell activating properties of GM-CSF require further exploration.