Patent Abstract:
hepatocyte growth factor stimulates proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic cells , most preferably burst - forming unit - erythroid cells . the hepatocyte growth factor may be obtained from cells transformed with human gene sequences coding therefor . pharmaceutical compositions useful to induce the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic cells may contain hepatocyte growth factor as an active principle in admixture with a suitable carrier . the pharmaceutical compositions may additionally contain stem cell factor as an active principle .

Detailed Description:
for the envisaged therapeutical uses , hgf from different sources can be used , for example from animal or human organs or from prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells transformed with genes coding for hgf . by the term hgf , an activated form of hgf is obviously meant , such as described in example 1 and 6 . the use of human recombinant hgf is preferred , but the invention also applies to all the possible variants of hgf , including any deletion and / or substitution mutant forms . the hepatocyte growth factors will be formulated in dosage forms suitable to the administration of protein substances . the formulations of the invention therefore will be administered preferably by the parenteral route and they can be prepared using conventional techniques and excipients , as described for example in remington &# 39 ; s pharmaceutical sciences handbook , mack pub . co ., n . y ., usa . anyhow , other administration routes already suggested for protein active principles , such as the nasal , sublingual , rectal and oral routes , cannot be excluded . for the latter , the active principle will suitably be protected from metabolic degradation making use of known techniques , for example the inclusion in liposome vesicles . the hgf dosage , according to the invention , may vary within wide ranges , for example from about 0 . 01 mg to about 10 mg of hgf , one or more times daily . the following examples further illustrate the invention . full - length hgf cdna was cloned from human liver mrna and inserted into the baculovirus transfer vector pvl1393 ( invitrogen , san diego , calif .). the recombinant vector was cotransfected with the bsul - digested bacpak6 viral dna ( clontech laboratories , palo alto , calif .) into spodoptera frugiperda insect cells ( sf9 ) by the lipofectin procedure ( gibco - brl , gaithersburg , md .). positive clones were identified and purified by dot - blot hybridization and plaque assay . the recombinant virus was used to infect sf9 cells with dilutions of 10 - 1 , 10 - 2 , 10 - 3 , 10 - 6 . after one week , the infected cell extracts were blotted on a nylon filter and probed with radiolabelled full - length human hgf cdna . the viruses containing the hgf cdna gene were subsequently purified by plaque assay . single viral clones were isolated and used for large scale infection of sf9 cells . the recombinant factor was purified by affinity chromatography on heparin ( biorad laboratories , hercules , calif . ), according to the procedure published by weidner et al ., 1990 , with some modifications . sf9 spodoptera frugiperda cells were grown at 27 ° c . in serum - free sf900 medium ( gibco ltd , scotland ). exponentially growing cultures were infected by adding the viral stock in serumfree culture medium , and the cells were grown for 3 days . the culture medium was then collected and was incubated overnight in the presence of 3 % foetal calf serum at 37 ° c ., to ensure full activation of the precursor ; it was then spun at 300 × g for 15 min , to remove cellular debris , and cleared by centrifugation at 10 , 000 × g for 1 h . the supernatant was buffered to ph = 7 . 4 with tris , supplemented with a mixture of protease inhibitors ( 1 mm pmsf , 50 μg / ml leupeptin , 10 μg / ml aprotinin , 4 μg / ml pepstatin ) and the detergent chaps to a final concentration of 0 . 2 % w / v , filtered on a 0 . 45 μm pore tuffryn membrane filter ( gelman sciences , ann arbor , mich .) by vacuum suction , cooled to 4 ° c . and applied to a 5 ml heparin - agarose column assembled in an fplc apparatus in the cold room with a loading rate of 8 ml / h . the column was sequentially washed with 0 . 15 m nacl , 50 mm tris - hcl ph = 7 . 4 , 0 . 2 % chaps and 0 . 5 m nacl , 50 mm tris - hcl ph = 7 . 4 , 0 . 2 % chaps until the eluant absorbance returned to the baseline . bound materials were eluted with a linear gradient from 0 . 5 m to 1 . 8m nacl over 8 h in 50 mm tris - hcl ph = 7 . 4 , chaps 0 . 2 %, with a flow rate of 0 . 2 ml / min , and 2 ml fractions were collected . the starting material , the column breakthrough and washings , and the eluted fractions , were scored for the content of hgf by the mdck scattering assay ( weidner et al ., 1990 ; naldini et al ., 1992 ). the fractions containing the peak of hgf activity , eluting at approximately 1m nacl , were pooled , concentrated with a diafiltration device with 30 , 000 molecular weight cut off ( amicon div ., grace industrial , switzerland ), checked for biological activity on mdck cells , and purity by sds - page and protein stains , to give pure hgf with an average yield of the procedure of 150 μg from 700 ml of culture supernatant . production of human recombinant pro - hgf in insect cells . hgf cdna was cloned from human liver mrna ( naldini et al ., 1991a ) and inserted as a bamhi - ecori fragment into the baculovirus transfer vector pvl1393 ( invitrogen ). the recombinant vector was co - transfected with the bsui - digested bacpak6 viral dna ( clontech ) into spodoptera frugiperda insect cells ( sf9 ), by the lipofectin procedure . positive viral clones isolated by dot - blot hybridization and plaque assay were used for large scale infection . hgf was obtained from culture supernatant of sf9 infected cells 72 hours post - infection , by affinity chromatography on a heparin - sepharose fplc column ( biorad ), eluted with a linear 0 . 5 - 1 . 8 m nacl gradient . the unprocessed recombinant factor ( pro . sup .• hgf ) was detected by comassie blue staining as a band of 90 kda in sdspage . protein concentration was estimated by comassie blue staining and comparison with a standard curve obtained with increasing amounts of bovine serum albumin . the effect of hgf on the growth and differentiation of hematopoietic progenitors was evaluated in colony formation assays . heparinized samples of bone marrow , fetal umbilical cord blood and adult peripheral blood , obtained from volunteers , were diluted with an equal volume of phosphate buffered saline ( pbs ), and separated by ficoll - hypaque 1077 sd ( pharmacia ) density gradient centrifugation at 550 g for 30 minutes . light - density mononuclear cells ( ld - mc ) were collected , washed twice in pbs and resuspended in iscove modified dulbecco &# 39 ; s medium ( imdm ) ( gibco ) supplemented with 5 % fetal calf serum ( fcs ). mononuclear adherent cells were then removed by a two steps incubation of 30 minutes each in plastic flasks at 37 ° c . mononuclear non - adherent cells ( mnac ) were incubated with neuraminidase - treated sheep erythrocytes for 15 minutes at 37 ° c ., centrifuged and incubated for 45 minutes at 4 ° c . t - lymphocyte - depleted mnac were separated by ficoll - hypaque 1077 sd ( pharmacia ) density gradient centrifugation . t - lymphocyte - depleted mnac were then incubated for 45 minutes at 4 ° c . with the following antibodies : anti - cd3 , anti - cd4 , anti - cd8 , anticd11 , anti - cd19 , anti - cd57 ; most of the remaining b - and t - lymphocytes , monocytes and granulocytes were thus removed by incubation for 45 min . at 4 ° c . with immunomagnetic beads coated with anti - mouse igg ( m - 450 dynabeads , dynal ), subsequently collected by a magnet ( mpc - 1 dynabeads , dynal ). a positive selection of the cd34 + cells was then performed : cells were incubated with an antibody anti - cd34 ( my - 10 ; technogenetics ) for 45 minutes at 4 ° c ., then for 45 minutes at 4 ° c . with immunomagnetic beads coated with anti - mouse igg ; a 4 : 1 beads / cell ratio was found to provide the best recovery . cd34 + cells bound to the beads were then collected by a magnet and resuspended in imdm supplemented with 10 % fcs . an overnight incubation at 37 ° c . was then performed ; to allow cd34 + cells detachment , the beads were subjected to shearing forces by repeated flushing through a pasteur pipette . further details about the negative / positive double selection procedure used have been published previously ( bagnara et al ., 1991 ). the recovered cells were morphologically unidentifiable blast elements on may - grunwald - giemsa staining , slightly contaminated by promyelocytes . flow cytometry analysis indicated that the percentage of cd34 + cells in the selected cell preparations varied between a minimum of 30 % ( when the starting material was bone marrow ) and a maximum of 50 % ( when the starting material was peripheral blood ). contamination by cd4 +, cd2 +, cd16 + or cd19 + cells was constantly below 1 %. the colony assay for erythroid burst - forming units and for multipotent colony - forming units ( cfu - gemm ) was performed according to iscove et al ., 1974 . cord blood , bone marrow or peripheral blood cd34 + cells were plated in 24 - well cell culture clusters ( costar ), at a density of 2 . 5 × 10 3 cells / well , in a medium containing imdm , 30 % fcs , 2 × 10 - 4 m hemin , 5 × 10 - 5 β - mercaptoethanol and 0 . 9 % methylcellulose . the cells were stimulated with the following growth factors alone or in combination : epo 2 ng / ml , il - 3 2 ng / ml , gh - csf 50 ng / ml , scf 20 ng / ml , pro - hgf 2 , 10 or 40 ng / ml . colonies scored positive only when dark - red and containing more than four aggregates . the assay for the 14 - day granulo - monocyte colony - forming units ( cfu - gm ) was performed as previously described ( iscove et al ., 1971 ). cord blood , bone marrow or peripheral blood cd34 + cells were plated in 24 - well cell culture clusters ( costar ), at a density of 2 . 5 × 10 3 cells / well , in a medium containing imdm , 20 % fcs , 0 . 3 % noble agar ( difco ) and the following growth factors alone or in combination : il - 3 2 ng / ml , gm - csf 50 ng / ml , scf 20 ng / ml , pro - hgf 2 , 10 or 40 ng / ml . for the megakaryocyte colony - forming unit ( cfu - meg ) assay , plasma clot assay was performed according to vainchenker et al ., 1979 . cord blood , bone marrow or peripheral blood cd34 + cells were plated in 24 - well cell culture clusters ( costar ), at a density of 2 . 5 × 10 3 cells / well , in a medium containing imdm , 20 mg / ml l - asparagine ( sigma ), 3 . 4 mg / ml cacl 2 , 10 % bovine plasma citrated ( gibco ), 1 % detoxified bovine serum albumin ( bsa , fraction v chon ) ( sigma ), 10 % of heat - inactivated human ab serum and the following growth factors alone or in combination : il - 3 2 ng / ml , gm - csf 50 ng / ml , scf 20 ng / ml , pro - hgf 2 , 10 or 40 ng / ml . after 12 days of incubation , the plasma clot was fixed in situ with methanol - acetone 1 : 3 . for 20 minutes , washed with pbs and air dried . fixed plates were stored at - 20 ° c . until immunofluorescence staining was performed ; cfu - meg colonies were scored as aggregates of 3 - 100 cells intensively fluorescent to monoclonal antibody cd41 ( immunotech ) directed against the iib / iiia glycoprotein complex . binding was shown by fluorescein - conjugated goat anti - mouse ig ( becton dickinson ). the results are schematized in fig1 and 2 , and they show that , in the presence of standard concentrations of erythropoietin ( 2 ng / ml ), hgf dramatically increased the number of colonies derived from the bfu - e precursors ( fig1 ). hgf also stimulated the growth of colonies derived from multipotent cfu - gemm progenitors . the number of colonies was comparable to that obtained by combining known hemopoietic factors such as gm - csf and interleukin - 3 ( gasson , 1991 ; miyajima et al ., 1993 ). it should be noted , however , that the hgf effect was restricted to the stimulation of cfu - gemm and bfu - e . neither granulo - monocytic nor megakaryocytic colonies were ever observed in response to hgf . the response to hgf was dose - dependent and could be observed at concentrations of hgf as low as 5 pm both in erythroid and multipotent colonies ( fig2 ). the hgf action was also studied on cd34 + foetal hematopoietic progenitors , enriched from human umbilical cords blood . it is known that this population contains a percentage of primitive stem cells higher than the population purified from adult bone marrow or peripheral blood ( broxmeyer et al ., 1992 ; lu et al ., 1993 ). as observed in the case of adult hematopoietic progenitors , hgf stimulated both bfu - e and cfu - gemm derived colonies . in the presence of both hgf and stem cell factor ( scf ), a significant increase in the number of cfu - gemm - derived colonies was observed ( fig3 ). in this case , fewer erythroid colonies could be seen compared to those developed in the cultures stimulated by hgf alone . this suggests that the combination of hgf and scf preferentially affects proliferation of multipotent progenitors . the erythroid colonies grown in the presence of both growth factors were extremely large and showed a high hemoglobin content . the size of cfu - gemm derived colonies grown in these conditions was also increased and , within each colony , the erythroid lineage was predominant . in these assays hgf did not synergize with gm - csf and interleukin - 3 , either tested individually or in combination . expression of the hgf receptor in a subpopulation of adult hematopoietic progenitors ( cd34 +). the presence of hgf receptor at the surface of hematopietic progenitors was studied by flow cytometry analysis of bone marrow and peripheral blood mononuclear cells . monoclonal antibodies directed against extracellular epitopes of the hgf receptor β chain were used . a small but clearly identifiable subpopulation of bone marrow cells stained positive for the hgf receptor ( table ). ______________________________________ phenotype positive cells % ______________________________________a . unfractionated hgf - r + 0 . 6 ± 0 . 1 bone marrow hgf - r +/ cd34 + 0 . 3 ± 0 . 05 hgf - r +/ cd34 - 0 . 3 ± 0 . 1 hgf - r +/ scf - r + 0 . 2 ± 0 . 1 hgf - r +/ scf - r - 0 . 4 ± 0 . 1 b . cfu - gemm - derived hgf - r + 15 . 3 ± 1 . 5 colonies c . bfu - e - derived hgf - r + 9 . 7 ± 1 . 2 colonies______________________________________ about half of the cells expressing the hgf receptor also co - expressed the cd34 marker and could thus be identified as hematopoietic - progenitors . as described above , hgf synergized with the scf in stimulating the growth and differentiation of cfu - gemm derived colonies . in line with this observation , a subpopulation of cells co - expressing the hgf and the scf receptors was identified using a monoclonal antibody against extracellular epitopes of the scf receptor . similar results were obtained by flow cytometry analysis of cd34 + progenitors circulating in the peripheral blood . flow cytometry analysis with anti - hgf - receptor antibodies was also performed on cells harvested from the colonies developed in vitro in response to hgf . the table shows that hgf - receptor positive cells were present . expression of hgf and its receptor during the embryonal development of hematopoietic cells . the expression of the hgf receptor was studied in embryonal hematopoietic cells by in situ hybridization of histological sections of mouse embryos . using an antisense met probe , the hgf receptor mrna could be clearly detected in megaloblastic cells located within the cavity of the developing heart and aorta from 10 - 10 . 5 days post coitum . specific mrna could be detected in the hepato / biliary primordium , which at this stage contains hemopoietic precursors . in this developing organ erythroid islands showed a higher levels of hgf receptor mrna , compared with the level of expression observed in the surrounding hepatocytes . from 11 days post coitum the hematopoietic embryonal liver also expressed hgf mrna . in order to prove the mobilization of the bone marrow hemopoietic precursors at the peripheral blood , the murine model has been used . balb / c mice were treated subcutaneously for 4 days with hgf at varied concentrations or with control preparations . at the end of the treatment , mice were killed , the circulating leukocytes were counted and hemopoietic colonies from peripheral blood were cultured . in hgf - treated mice , contrary to the untreated controls , an about 60 % increase in circulating leukocytes was observed as well as an increase in the colonies obtainable from peripheral blood . this phenomenon has an intensity comparable with that of g - csf , already described and used to mobilize bone marrow hematopoietic precursors ( janssen , w . e ., et al ., prog . clin . biol . res . 389 : 429 - 39 ). using in the colony formation assay on cd34 + cells of example 3 equimolecular amounts of activated hgf , obtained according to example 1 , instead of pro - hgf , statistically similar results have been obtained in the colonies count as shown in the enclosed fig4 . 1 . bagnara , g . p ., g . zauli , l . vitale , p . rosito , v . vecchi , g . paolucci , g . c . avanzi , u . ramenghi , f . timeus , and v . gabutti , 1991 . in vitro growth and regulation of bone marrow enriched cd34 + hematopoietic progenitors in diamond - blackfan anemia . blood . 78 ; 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spectrum human lung fibroblast - derived mitogen is a variant of hepatocyte growth factor . proc . natl . acad . sci . usa . 88 : 415 - 419 . 37 . sonnenberg e ., d . meyer , k . m . weidner , and c . birchmeier . 1993 . scatter factor / hepatocyte growth factor and its receptor , the c - met tyrosine kinase , can mediate a signal exchange beyween mesenchyme and epithelia during mouse development . j . cell . biol . 123 : 223 - 235 . 38 . sporn , m . b ., and a . b . roberts . 1992 . transforming growth factor - β : recent progress and new challenges . j . cell . biol . 119 : 1017 - 1021 . 39 . stern , c . d ., g . w . ireland , s . e . herrick , e . gherardi , j . gray , m . perryman , and m . stoker . 1990 . epithelial scatter factor , and m . stoker . 1990 . epithelial scatter factor , and m . stoker . 1990 . epithelial scatter factor and development of the chick embryonic axis . 110 : 1271 - 1284 . 40 . stoker , m ., e . gherardi , m . perryman , and j . gray . 1987 . scatter factor is a fibroblast - 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