Comparison of BSC-1 cells and Saos-2 cells (human osteogenic sarcoma), which do not express significant quantities of PDGF A-chain mRNA or protein, indicates that basal transcription of the gene is determined by enhancer activity mediated by the GC-rich region rather than through de-repression of the upstream NREs.
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been used to amplify sequences coding for the platelet-derived growth factor A chain (PDGFA) using mRNA populations derived from two transformed cell lines (a human osteosarcoma, U-2OS, and a human glioma, U-343) and from human umbilical vein cells.