Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) has mitogenic, morphogenic, and motogenic activities on epithelial cells and plays important roles in regeneration of the liver and the kidney. We previously found that the expression of HGF gene is rapidly induced in the lung after acute lung injury in experimental animals and that HGF levels are elevated in blood of patients with lung diseases. To search for a possible pulmotrophic function of HGF in lung regeneration, we examined the mitogenic activity of HGF on tracheal epithelial cells in vitro and evaluated the efficacy of HGF-administration on lung regeneration after acute lung injury in mice. HGF markedly stimulated proliferation and DNA synthesis of rat tracheal epithelial cells in primary culture in a dose-dependent manner. The intravenous injection of human recombinant HGF (10 micrograms.mouse-1.day-1) into mice with acute lung injury induced by the intratracheal infusion of 10 mM HCI stimulated DNA synthesis of airway epithelial cells to levels threefold higher than those in mice with no HGF-injections, but it did not stimulate DNA synthesis of alveolar epithelial cells. However, HGF injection at higher dose (100 micrograms.mouse-1.day-1) stimulated DNA synthesis of alveolar epithelial cells in vivo. These results indicate that HGF is a potent mitogen for airway epithelial cells and alveolar epithelial cells in vivo as well as in vitro. HGF may act as pulmotrophic factor responsible for airway and alveolar regeneration during lung regeneration after acute lung injury.

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), a natural ligand for the c-met protooncogene product, exhibits mitogenic, motogenic, and morphogenic activities for regeneration of the liver, kidney, and lung. Recently, HGF was clearly shown to enhance neurite outgrowth in vitro. To determine whether HGF has a neuroprotective action against the death of neurons in vivo, we studied the effect of HGF on delayed neuronal death in the hippocampus after 5-minute transient forebrain ischemia in Mongolian gerbils. Continuous postischemic intrastriatal administration of human recombinant HGF (10 or 30 micrograms) for 7 days potently prevented the delayed death of hippocampal neurons under both anesthetized and awake conditions. Even when HGF infusion started 6 hours after ischemia (i.e., in a delayed manner), HGF exhibited a neuroprotective action. We conclude that HGF, a novel neurotrophic factor, has a profound neuroprotective effect against postischemic delayed neuronal death in the hippocampus, which may have implications for the development of new therapeutic strategies for ischemic neuronal damage in humans.

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), a ligand for Met tyrosine kinase, is a mesenchyme- or stroma-derived multipotent factor that regulates the growth, motility, and morphogenesis of various types of cells. During lung development, Met/HGF receptor mRNA was localized in lung epithelial cells, whereas HGF mRNA was localized in lung mesenchymal cells in rat embryos. Antisense HGF oligonucleotides specifically inhibited epithelial branching morphogenesis in cultured lung rudiment isolated from day-13 rat embryos, whereas recombinant HGF stimulated branching morphogenesis. Thus, HGF seems to be at least one of the mesenchyme-derived factors that support branching morphogenesis during lung development. Together with the finding that HGF plays important roles in organogenesis and morphogenesis of organs such as the liver and kidney, HGF seems to be a mediator in epithelium-mesenchyme interactions during organogenesis. Extending the conceptual framework of epithelium-mesenchyme (or epithelium-stroma) interactions, we next examined the possible involvement of HGF in tumor-stroma interactions, because the growth and motility of carcinoma cells are regulated through their interactions with host stromal cells. HGF induced in vitro migration and invasion of GB-d1 gallbladder carcinoma cells into basement membrane components and collagen-gel matrix; however, several other growth factors did not induce marked migration and invasion of the carcinoma cells. GB-d1 cells do not produce HGF, but they produce in inducing factor for HGF production in fibroblasts; the inducing molecule was identified as interleukin 1 beta. Cocultivation of GB-d1 cells with stromal fibroblasts embedded in a collagen-gel matrix induced invasion of GB-d1 cells into the collagen gels, but invasion was inhibited by a specific antibody against HGF. This indicates that in vitro invasion of GB-d1 cells depends on stromal fibroblasts and that the fibroblast-derived invasion factor is HGF. Since HGF stimulated in vitro migration and invasion of various carcinoma cells and several carcinoma cells produced inducing factors for HGF production in stromal fibroblasts, the looped interaction of carcinoma cells and stromal fibroblasts mediated by HGF and HGF inducers may be a mechanism responsible for acquisition of the malignant phenotype through tumor-stroma interactions.

Mesenchymal-epithelial tissue interactions are important for development of various organs, and in many cases, soluble signaling molecules may be involved in this interaction. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a mesenchyme-derived factor which has mitogenic, motogenic and morphogenic activities on various types of epithelial cells and is considered to be a possible mediator of epithelial-mesenchymal interaction during organogenesis and organ regeneration. In this study, we examined the role of HGF during lung development. In situ hybridization analysis showed HGF and the c-met/HGF receptor gene to be respectively expressed in mesenchyme and epithelium in the developing lung. In organ cultures, exogenously added HGF apparently stimulated branching morphogenesis of the fetal lung. In contrast, HGF translation arrest or neutralization assays resulted in clear inhibition of epithelial branching. These results suggest that HGF is a putative candidate for a mesenchyme-derived morphogen regulating lung organogenesis. We also found that HGF is involved in epithelial branching, in collaboration with fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family molecule(s). In mesenchyme-free culture, HGF alone did not induce epithelial morphogenesis, however, addition of both HGF and acidic FGF (aFGF) or keratinocyte growth factor (KGF), ligands for the KGF receptor, induced epithelial branching more extensively than that was observed in explants treated with aFGF or KGF alone. In addition, the simultaneous inhibition of HGF- and FGF-mediated signaling using neutralizing antibody and antisense oligo-DNA resulted in drastic impairment of epithelial growth and branching. Possible interactions between HGF and FGFs or other growth factors in lung development is given consideration.