Patent ID: 7025959

Claim:
An isolated protein of the TGF-β family which has mitogenic and/or differentiation-inductive activity and is coded by a DNA molecule selected from the group consisting of (a) a DNA molecule comprising the nucleotide sequence of nucleotides 866–1183 of SEQ ID NO:1; (b) a DNA molecule comprising the nucleotide sequence shown in the SEQ ID NO:3, or the following fragments: nucleotides 131–1186 of SEQ ID NO:3, nucleotides 839–1186 of SEQ ID NO:3, and nucleotides 869–1186 of SEQ ID NO:3; (c) a DNA molecule encoding the amino acid sequence encoded by (a) or (b); and (d) a DNA molecule comprising a nucleotide sequence (i) which hybridizes with a complement of one of the DNA molecules from (a) and (b) under stringent hybridization conditions in 6x SSC at 62–66° C. followed by one hour wash with 0.6x SSC and 0.1% SDS at 62–66° C. and (ii) which encodes a protein comprising an amino acid sequence containing seven conversed cysteine residues, said seven conserved cysteines corresponding to cystine residues at positions 247, 276, 280, 316, 317, 349 and 351 in SEQ ID NO:2.