Keratinocyte growth factor: an androgen-regulated mediator of stromal-epithelial interactions in the prostate.

Members of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family are important growth-regulatory elements. Of the FGFs, keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) appears to have unique properties that implicate it as a paracrine factor in the prostate. Two KGF transcripts (approximately to 2.4 and 5.0 kb) encode a protein of approximately 22 kDa. In contrast to several other members of the FGF family, KGF has a signal peptide and is actively secreted. Cellular response to KGF is mediated by a specific receptor that is transcribed from an alternately spliced variant of the FGF type 2 receptor (FGFR-2). KGF transcripts have been detected in prostatic tissues and in stromal cells cultured from rat and human prostates as well as in a variety of stromal cells derived from other organs. Prostatic epithelial cells and numerous other types of epithelial cells are targets of KGF's mitogenic activity. Several factors involved in wound healing regulate the expression of KGF, but androgen regulation of KGF is of greatest relevance to the role of KGF in the prostate. Current efforts to localize and manipulate KGF activity in vivo should reveal the significance of KGF expression and function in the prostate and in other organs.