Neurotrophic role of hepatocytes growth factor (HGF) and its family member in the nervous system

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HGF is originally purified and molecularly cloned as a mitogen for primary hepatocytes (Nakamura T et al., BBRC 1984 ; Nakamura T et al., Nature 1989). A large number of evidences revealed that HGF acts as a novel neurotrophic factor for a variety of neurons in vitro (Honda et al., Mol Brain Res. 1995 ; Funakoshi et al., Clin Chim Acta 2003). In addition, neurotrophic activity of HGF in a variety of neural disease model including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is evident (Sun et al., J. Neurosci. 2002). Here we analyzed the roles for HGF in neurodegenerative disease and anxiolytic function. In addition, we analyzed the potential methods for the delivery of HGF in neural diseases, such as protein and gene therapy.Our findings suggest that HGF plays an important role in a variety of neural diseases.