Fibroblast growth factor and cerebral ischaemia.

Although the cellular events that accompany brain injury have been well characterized, the factors that mediate growth and repair in the central nervous system (CNS) are only beginning to be identified. One such is fibroblast growth factor. The fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family of proteins includes, at this moment, seven structurally related polypeptides. Acidic and basic FGF (aFGF and bFGF) were the first described members of the family, and are the best characterized. Both proteins bind with high affinity to the same kind of receptor at the plasma membrane through which they induce a whole series of intracellular events that mediate their physiological functions. FGF, which displays pleiotrophic biological activities including mitogenesis, chemotaxis, and induction of differentiation is a potent angiogenic factor in vivo, tested in assays as different as the rabbit cornea, the chick chorioalantoic membrane (CAM), the rat common carotid artery, and the rat brain.