Discription：Cardiotrophin-1 （CT-1） is a member of the cytokine family which also includes IL-6, IL-11, leukemia inhibitory factor （LIF） , Oncostatin M （OSM） , and ciliary neurotrophic factor （CNTF） . CT-1 is a pleiotropic cytokine which is expressed in various tissues including the adult heart, skeletal muscle, ovary, colon, prostate and fetal lung, and signals through the LIF receptor and the gp130 receptor subunit. CT-1 has the ability to induce cardiac myocyte hypertrophy, and enhances the survival of cardiomyocyte and different neuronal populations. Human CT-1 encodes a 201 amino acid （a.a.） residue protein that lacks a hydrophobic signal peptide and it shares 78％ a.a. and 80％ a.a. sequence identity with murine and rat CT-1. Recombinant Human CT-1 is a 21.2kDa protein consisting of 201 amino acid residues.
