Stemfactor BMP-4, Human Recombinant

Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 (BMP-4) is a polypeptide belonging to the TGFβ protein super-family. BMP-4 is involved in bone and cartilage development; more specifically, in tooth and limb development fracture repair 1 . In human embryonic development, BMP-4 is a critical signaling molecule required for the early differentiation of the embryo and establishment of a dorsal-ventral axis 2,3 . BMP-4 plays an important role in the differentiation of overlying ectodermal tissue. Inhibition of the BMP-4 signal causes the ectoderm to differentiate into the neural plate. In cultured stem cells, BMP-4 plays a distinct role in mouse and human embryonic stem (ES) cells. BMP-4 supports LIF as a positive factor for mouse ES cell self-renewal 4 . In contrast, BMP-4 induces extra-embryonic trophoblast differentiation in human pluripotent stem cells 5 . Stemfactor BMP-4 is a recombinant protein expressed and purified from human 293 cells as a glycosylated homodimer with a molecular mass of 34 kDa.