Sumitomo Electric Industries, Limited

Biomaterial Research Institute Co., Ltd.

Biomedical Research Institute Co., Ltd.

Yohei Hirai

Kyoko Takebe

Shogo Koshida

Yumiko Oka

Makoto Takashina

Keiko Tochigi

Toko Shinagawa

Kiichiro Nakajima

Hokari Tsuda

Kayoko Murakami

The object of the present invention is to provide an oligopeptide having hair growth promoting activity. The present invention provides an oligopeptide which is represented by the formula (I): X1-X2-X3-X4-X5-X6-X7, or the like wherein X1 represents an amino acid residue such as Ser, X2 represents an amino acid residue such as Ile, X3 represents an amino acid residue such as Glu, X4 represents an amino acid residue such as Gln, X5 represents an amino acid residue such as Ser, X6 represents the amino acid residue Cys to which a modifying group containing a carbonyl group binds, or the amino acid residue Lys to which a modifying group containing a carbonyl group binds, and X7 represents an amino acid residue such as Glu or Ala.

Hair growth promoting oligopeptides

The present invention provides oligopeptides having morphogenesis promoting activity and in particular, hair promoting activity. The oligopeptides may be in monomer form, monomer having a reactive substance bound form or as a polymer, such as a dimer including a homodimer; heterodimer; homotrimer; or heterodimer. The present invention also provides monoclonal antibodies that specifically recognize a 220 kDa antigen of epithelial new hair follicles; hybridomas producing such antibody; and methods and kits for assaying hair growth in mammalian subjects.

Oligopeptides for promoting hair growth

Disclosed herein are a modified epimorphin obtained by adding a hydrophilic peptide composed of 5 to 99 amino acids to at least one terminus of a polypeptide containing the functional domain of epimorphin, and a modified epimorphin composed of a polypeptide having a structure wherein a hydrophobic domain adjacent to the C-terminus of the whole-length epimorphin consisting of a coiled coil domain (1) on the N-terminal side, a functional domain (2) at the center, a coiled coil domain (3) on the C-terminal side and the hydrophobic domain (4) adjacent to the C-terminus has been deleted from the whole-length epimorphin, and at least part of amino acids have been deleted from the terminal side of at least one of the coiled coil domains (1) and (3) as well. The invention also discloses a variant modified epimorphin obtained by making partial substitution, deletion and/or insertion of amino acids in the amino acid sequence of the modified epimorphin, wherein the variant maintains the function of the original sequence. The invention further discloses DNAs encoding the modified epimorphin and variant thereof, recombinant vectors containing the DNAs, transformants obtained by introducing the recombinant vectors, and a production method of the modified epimorphin and the variants thereof making use of the transformant.

Modified epimorphin

Novel physiologically active substance designated as epimorphin which is capable of being expressed by a gene hybridizing with a gene probe composed of the base sequence complementary to part of the base sequence of Sequence ID No. 1 in Sequence Listing, and which is produced by mesenchymal cells derived from human or mouse, and which shows morphogenetic activity of epithelial tissue, and isoforms of the epimorphin, base sequences encoding them, modified epimorphin, in which hydrophobic region at the carboxy terminal of the epimorphin polypeptide has been deleted or replaced by non-hydrophobic polypeptide, and polyclonal antibody or monoclonal antibody produced by the use of a full length or a part of the epimorphin as an antigen are provided. The substances of the present invention can be used for elucidation of the mechanism of diseases caused by abnormal epithelium formation, diagnosis of such diseases, or development of therapeutic methods therefor.

Physiologically active substance designated as epimorphin genes encoding

Novel physiologically active substance designated as epimorphin which is capable of being expressed by a gene hybridizing with a gene probe composed of the base sequence complementary to part of the base sequence of Sequence ID No. 1 in Sequence Listing, and which is produced by mesenchymal cells derived from human or mouse, and which shows morphogenetic activity of epithelial tissue, and isoforms of said epimorphin, base sequences encoding them, modified epimorphin, in which hydrophobic region at the carboxy terminal of said epimorphin polypeptide has been deleted or replaced by non-hydrophobic polypeptide, and polyclonal antibody or monoclonal antibody produced by the use of a full length or a part of said epimorphin as an antigen are provided. The substances of the present invention can be used for elucidation of the mechanism of diseases caused by abnormal epithelium formation, diagnosis of said diseases, or development of therapeutic methods therefor.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Yohei Hirai