Novel fibroblast growth factor and nucleic acids encoding same

An isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of:

• a) a polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO:2;
• b) a variant of SEQ ID NO:2, in which any amino acid specified in the chosen sequence is changed to a different amino acid, provided that no more than 15% of the amino acid residues in the sequence are so changed;
• c) a mature form of the amino acid sequence given by SEQ ID NO:2;
• and
• d) a variant of a mature form of the amino acid sequence given by SEQ ID NO:2, wherein any amino acid in the mature form of the chosen sequence is changed to a different amino acid, provided that no more than 15% of the amino acid residues in the sequence of the mature form are so changed;
• e) a fragment of an amino acid sequence described in a) to d);
• and
• f) the complement of any of the nucleic acid molecules described in paragraphs a) to e).