The angiopoietins are a family of growth factors that are specific for vascular endothelium. The full-length cDNA encoding angiopoietin-like protein 3 (ANGPTL3) from a human fetal liver/spleen cDNA library has 460-amino acid and the characteristic structure of angiopoietins: a signal peptide, an extended helical domain predicted to form dimeric or trimeric coiled-coils, a short linker peptide, and a globular fibrinogen-like domain (FLD). Human ANGPTL3 shares 76% amino acid sequence identity with mouse Angptl3. Northern blot analysis of human tissues showed a preferential expression of 4 ANGPTL3 transcripts being 4.5, 3.0, 2.8, and 1.7 kb in liver. ANGPTL3 can induce angiogenesis in the rat corneal assay. The FLD alone was sufficient to indu