HGF and infectious disease: HSPG is a sulphated glycoprotein that binds and facilitates the cytokine–receptor interaction (Rescan et al. 1993) and the conversion of promitogen HGF to the two-chain form (Liu et al. 1992) High levels of HGF have been reported in blood during acute injuries such as infectious diseases (Nayeri et al. 2002c).