Ontogeny of Hepatocyte Growth Factor and c-met/hgf Receptor in Rat Pancreas

Hepatocyte growth factor has several activities in epithelial cells, including mitogenesis, dissociation of epithelial sheets, stimulation of motility, and promotion of matrix invasion. HGF is the ligand of a dimeric transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor encoded by the met proto-oncogene. The objective of this study was to characterize by Northern blot the HGF and c-met mRNA expression in rat pancreas during development. Our findings show that simultaneous expression of both messengers occurs during the early development of the rat pancreas. Pancreatic HGF and c-met mRNA levels were higher between late fetal and 11 post-natal days and then decreased to a very low level at 26 days. This low level was maintained until the adult age. We conclude that HGF gene expression and c-met pancreatic gene expression are age dependent with the highest expression before weaning. These new data demonstrate that HGF and its receptor may be implicated in normal pancreas development and maturation.