Introduction of Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF)

The members of the EGF family are best known for their ability to stimulate cell growth and proliferation and are important for many developmental processes including promoting mitogenesis and differentiation of mesenchymal and epithelial cells. EGF family members are commonly grouped with respect to their structural homology and biological activity.All members contain one or more repeats of a conserved six cysteine-containing motif in their extracellular domain.These six cysteine residues are contained within a sequence of 35–40 amino acids CX7CX4–5CX10–13CXCX8GXRC (C, cysteine; G, glycine; R, arginine; X, any amino acid), and have the potential to form three intra-molecular disulfide bond pairings between C1–C3, C2–C4 and C5–C6 to produce three loops that are essential for high-affinity binding to the receptor. HB-EGF and amphiregulin also contains a region rich in basic amino acids residues within their Nterminal regions that is responsible for their heparin-binding ability.