The Anti-Aging Effects of Low Oxygen Tension Generated Multipotent Growth Factor Containing Serum.

Growth factors are a new category of ingredient found in modern cosmeceutical formulations. One novel method of obtaining cosmeceutical growth factors is the use of a bioreactor to culture neonatal broblasts on dextran microcarrier beads for 8 weeks under low oxygen tension (1-5%) mimicking embryonic conditions and eliminating the need for fetal bovine serum constituents in the final cosmetic material. This research evaluated the ingredient in a moisturizing vehicle on 40 females to determine its efficacy in improving overall facial skin appearance, as well as skin brightness, evenness, firmness, pore size, radiance, fine lines, coarse wrinkles, and blotchiness/ dispigmentation. Statistically significant improvement was seen in 90 days in skin hydration through corneometry, as well in global investigator and subject assessments. J Drugs Dermatol. 2017;16(1):30-34..

Recombinant keratinocyte growth factor 1 in tobacco potentially promotes wound healing in diabetic rats.

Keratinocyte growth factor 1 (KGF1) is a growth factor that promotes epidermal cell proliferation, migration, differentiation, and wound repair. It is expressed at low levels in a form of inclusion body in E. coli. In order to increase its expression and activity, we produced tobacco plants expressing KGF1 via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation using a potato virus X (PVX)-based vector (pgR107). The vector contained the sequence encoding the KGF1 gene fused with a green florescence protein. The recombinant plasmid was introduced into leaf cells of Nicotiana benthamiana (a wild Australian tobacco) via Agrobacterium-mediated agroinfiltration. As determined by fluorescence and Western blot of leaf extracts, the KGF1 gene was correctly translated into the tobacco plants. The recombinant KGF1 was purified from plant tissues by heparin affinity chromatography, and cell proliferation in NIH/3T3 cells was stimulated by the purified KGF1. The purified KGF1 was also applied to the wounds of type-II diabetic rats. KGF1 had accumulated to levels as high as 530 µ g/g fresh weight in the leaves of agroinfected plants. We show that plant-derived KGF1 can promote the proliferation of NIH/3T3 cells and have significant effects on the type-II diabetic rat. The present findings indicated that KGF1 from tobacco maintains its biological activity, implying prospective industrial production in a plant bioreactor.

The World Health Organization reference reagent for keratinocyte growth factor, KGF.

Preparations of human sequence recombinant keratinocyte growth factor (KGF), fibroblast growth factor-7 (FGF-7) synthesized in E. coli were formulated and lyophilized at National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) and evaluated in a collaborative study using in vitro bioassays and immunoassays. One candidate standard was the full-length mature KGF molecule and the two others were different formulations of a truncated form of the molecule, KGF (24-163). The study demonstrated the difficulty of performing interlaboratory comparison of assays without a common reference standard and differences in dose-response relationships between molecular variants. On the basis of the results reported here, the World Health Organization (WHO) established the preparation coded 03/150 as the WHO reference reagent for human KGF, with an assigned unitage of 4000 units of KGF per ampoule and the preparation coded 03/148 as the WHO reference reagent for human KGF (24-163), with an assigned unitage of 9000 units of KGF(24-163) per ampoule.