Yu Yamaguchi

Proteoglycans as modulators of growth factor activities

l Drosophila and Neurospora clock genes have been found to code for proteins that resemble certain mammalian proteoglycans (McClung et al., 1989); l the ligand for CD44, a lymphocyte homing receptor, has turned out to be the glycosaminoglycan hyaluronic acid (Aruffo et al., 1990); l proteoglycans bind to extracellular proteins such as fibronectin (see Ruoslahti, 1989); l finally, proteoglycans have been found to be binders of many growth factors. This review summarizes some of the recent developments in this latter field.