부산대학교 도서관

The article presents information on growth factors as transforming proteins. Growth factors exert their mitogenic effect by interaction with specific cell surface receptors on responsive cells. Many growth factors form families of structurally related molecules that bind to a common receptor. The binding of a growth factor to its receptor elicits a cascade of events, including protein phosphorylation, inositol-lipid breakdown, ion fluxes and changes in gene expression. Although attempts are being made to integrate these events into a scheme of molecular mechanisms involved in growth stimulation, the understanding of even the early phase of mitogenesis is still poor. Many growth factor receptors are equipped with protein tyrosine kinase activities that become activated after ligand binding.