Pure brain-derived acidic fibroblast growth factor is a potent angiogenic vascular endothelial cell mitogen with sequence homology to interleukin 1.

Pure bovine brain-derived acidic fibroblast growth factor is a very potent mitogen for vascular endothelial cells in culture and, in the presence of heparin, induces blood vessel growth in vivo. Partial amino acid sequence determinations confirm that this mitogen is a unique protein having amino acid sequence homology with human interleukin 1.