BMP-2, Human, Recombinant

Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2 (BMP-2) is a member of the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) superfamily and acts as a ligand for complexes of type I and II BMP receptors. BMPs are important regulators of bone and cartilage formation throughout embryogenesis. BMPs also have reported effects on many other cell types including neural, hematopoietic, epithelial and mesenchymal cells. Specifically BMP-2 is used to direct differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to various lineages (extra-embryonic endoderm, mesenchymal and chondrocyte). Mature recombinant human (rh) BMP-2 is a disulfide-linked homodimeric protein consisting of two 114 amino acid residue subunits, with a calculated molecular mass of approximately 26 kDa. Due to glycosylation, rhBMP-2 migrates as an approximately 36 kDa protein under non-reducing conditions, and as a 17-18 kDa protein under reducing conditions in SDS-PAGE. At the amino acid sequence level, mature human, mouse and rat BMP-2 are 100% identical.