Purification of autocrine growth factor from conditioned medium of rat sarcoma (XC) cells

Transformation of rat cells by Rous sarcoma virus(es) induced the release of growth factors into serum-free conditioned media. An PR-RSV-transformed rat cell line, XC, produced and released polypeptide factors which promote anchorage-dependent and anchorage-independent growth of XC cells. One of the autocrine factors of XC cells was purified to homogeneity by four-step procedure: ultrafiltration, ion-exchange chromatography on MonoS, reverse-phase chromatography on Spherisorb ODS2 and gel filtration on Superose 12. The factor gave a single band on SDS-electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gel and was assumed to have a molecular weight of 16 kDa. The factor is a potent mitogen for XC cells; half-maximal stimulation of DNA synthesis was achieved at a concentration of 0.8 ng/ml. The peptide is probably one of the family of EGF-like heparin-binding growth factors.