PMID: 2103501Aug 1, 1990Paper

Transforming growth factor alpha: expression, regulation and biological action of its integral membrane precursor

Seminars in Cancer Biology
N C Luetteke, D C Lee

Abstract

Transforming growth factor alpha (TGF alpha) is a 6 kDa polypeptide mitogen that interacts with the epidermal growth factor receptor and activates its intrinsic tyrosine kinase. The mature 50 amino acid TGF alpha is released from a 159 or 160 amino acid integral membrane glycoprotein precursor, denoted proTGF alpha, via cleavage at both termini by an unknown protease with elastase-like specificity. Rat proTGF alpha is encoded by a 4.5 kb mRNA that is transcribed from a gene containing 6 exons and spanning 85 kb of DNA. Expression of TGF alpha is most prevalent and abundant in transformed cells and tumors, but also detectable at modest levels in a limited number of normal cells and tissues. In many neoplastic cells, proteolytic processing of proTGF alpha is incomplete and/or inefficient, resulting in the preponderance of soluble and/or membrane-bound forms larger than the mature TGF alpha. To characterize the biological activities of the transmembrane TGF alpha precursor in the absence of processing, amino acid substitutions were introduced at the cleavage sites by site-directed mutagenesis of the rat TGF alpha cDNA. Fibroblasts expressing the mutant proTGF alpha constructs did not secrete TGF alpha, but did accumulate proTGF al...Continue Reading

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