Purification of a mammary-derived growth factor from human milk and human mammary tumors.

A growth factor, mammary-derived growth factor 1 (MDGF1), has been purified to apparent homogeneity from human milk. The factor is a pepsin-sensitive, reducing agent-insensitive protein with a molecular mass of 62 kDa and a pI of 4.8. An apparently identical factor has been isolated from human mammary tumors, suggesting that MDGF1 might be made by and act as an autocrine growth factor for mammary cells. High affinity receptors for MDGF1 have been detected on mouse mammary cells, normal rat kidney cells, and A431 epidermoid cells (KD = 2 X 10(-10) M). MDGF1 at picomolar levels stimulates the growth of mammary cells and greatly amplifies their production of collagen, apparently via elevating collagen mRNA levels, an effect that is demonstrated for normal rat kidney cells. The responsiveness of mammary cells to MDGF1 is attenuated when the cells are grown on a basement membrane collagen substratum, a component of the extracellular matrix upon which these cells normally rest in vivo. MDGF1 thus may regulate the production of new basement membrane as mammary epithelium invades the stroma during proliferation.