The protein is a member of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family. FGF family members possess broad mitogenic and cell survival activities, and are involved in a variety of biological processes, including embryonic development, cell growth, morphogenesis, tissue repair, tumor growth, and invasion. This growth factor lacks the N-terminal signal sequence present in most of the FGF family members, but it contains clusters of basic residues that have been demonstrated to act as a nuclear localization signal. When transfected into mammalian cells, this protein accumulated in the nucleus, but was not secreted.