Growth factor is any of about twenty small proteins that attach to specific receptors on the surface of stem cells in bone marrow and promote differentiation and maturation of these cells into morphotic constituents of blood.
The most important growth factors are :
- granuclocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)
- granuclocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)
- erythropoietin (EPO)
- granulocytopenia
- Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)
- leukemias
- aplastic anaemia
- bone marrow transplantation