Yamada T, Yoshiyama Y, Tsuboi Y, Shimomura T
Department of Neurology, Chiba University, Japan.
Brain Res. 1997 Jul 11;762(1-2):251-5. doi: 10.1016/s0006-8993(97)00504-0.
Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a potent mitogen for mature hepatocytes, and also has multifunctional effects on some other cells in various organs. A HGF activating protease, HGF activator (HGFA) has recently been identified as a key enzyme that regulates the activity of HGF in vivo. HGFA appears to be associated with the cell surface. We examined HGFA immunolabelling in the brains of neurologically normal and Alzheimer disease (AD) cases. Furthermore, we identified the expression of the mRNA for HGF and HGFA by in situ hybridization histochemistry. The HGFA antibody stained only astrocytes in the white matter in all the brain tissues. Expression of the mRNAs of HGF and HGFA was also seen in white matter astrocytes. These results suggest that, in human brain, secreted pro-HGF from astrocytes might be activated by HGFA on/or near the astrocytic cell surface.
肝细胞生长因子（HGF）是成熟肝细胞的一种强效促有丝分裂原，对各器官中的其他一些细胞也具有多种功能作用。一种HGF激活蛋白酶，即HGF激活剂（HGFA），最近已被确定为体内调节HGF活性的关键酶。HGFA似乎与细胞表面相关。我们检测了神经功能正常和阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者大脑中的HGFA免疫标记。此外，我们通过原位杂交组织化学鉴定了HGF和HGFA的mRNA表达。HGFA抗体仅在所有脑组织的白质中对星形胶质细胞进行染色。在白质星形胶质细胞中也可见HGF和HGFA的mRNA表达。这些结果表明，在人脑中，星形胶质细胞分泌的前HGF可能被星形胶质细胞表面或其附近的HGFA激活。
