Cloning, expression and functional characterization of in-house prepared human basic fibroblast growth factor.

Human basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) plays an important role in cellular proliferation, embryonic development, and angiogenesis as well as in several signaling pathways of various cell types. bFGF is an essential growth factor for the maintenance of undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). In this experimental study, we present a straightforward method to produce biologically active recombinant human bFGF protein in E. coli that has long-term storage ability. This procedure provides a rapid, cost effective purification of a soluble human bFGF protein that is biologically active and functional as measured in hESCs and hiPSCs in vitro and in vivo. The results show no significant difference in function between our in-house produced and commercialized bFGF.