Acid denaturation of acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) at low ionic strength was monitored by far-ultraviolet circular dichroism and intrinsic fluorescence. The two spectroscopic probes displayed noncoincident transitions, which suggested the accumulation of partly folded species around pH 4.0. Although under these conditions the fluorescence of aFGF resembled that of the unfolded form of the protein, farultraviolet circular dichroism and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectra indicated the presence of persistent secondary and tertiary structure. Moreover, at pH 4.0, aFGF showed cooperative thermal denaturation and interacted weakly with the hydrophobic probe N-phenyl-1-naphthylamine, showing a relatively high level of structure that did not fit into the classical molten globule category. This intermediate is also capable of interacting with liposomes and might represent a membrane translocation-competent form.Keywords: protein structure ; protein folding ; folding intermediate; translocation across membranes.Acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors (aFGF and bFGF, respectively) are proteins that induce mitogenesis in most mesoderm-and neuroectoderm-derived cell lines, and show many other hormone-like activities. The three-dimensional structures of the two polypeptides have been determined by X-ray diffraction and 'H-NMR [ l , 21. Their folding topology is similar and follows the p-trefoil motif [3]. However, no clear-cut differences in the biological activities between these two proteins have been observed [4-61. Both bind with high affinity to heparin and they are also referred to as heparin-binding growth factors. The interaction with heparin protects FCF proteins against denaturation [4] and is necessary for their binding to transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptors on the membrane to trigger mitogenesis [7, 81. Binding of FGF to their receptors causes tyrosine phosphorylation of several proteins, including the receptor, and translocation of the protein to the cell nucleus [9, 101 where it induces DNA synthesis. The study of the process of FGF translocation is, therefore, of special interest. It has been shown that aFGF fused to diphteria toxin translocates to the cytosol by a mechanism requiring low pH (4.3, and this process is prevented by the presence of heparin, which stabilizes FGF against pH denaturation [11-131. Recently, it has been reported that low pH also induces interaction of aFGF with acidic phospholipid membranes [ 141. Thus, it seems that translocation-competent aFGF has a partially folded structure like that induced by moderately acidic pH conditions. There is ample evidence that Correspondence to J. M. Sanz, Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas Fax: +34 15649075.