Key Role of Endothelial Importin α in VEGF Expression and Gastric Angiogenesis: Novel

6 Author Contributions: The authors contributed to the manuscript by their involvement in: 7 Conception and design of research: AST, AA 8 Performed experiments: AST, AA 9 Analyzed data: AST, AA, MKJ 10 Interpreted results of experiments: AST, AA, MKJ 11 Prepared figures: AA, AST 12 Drafted manuscript: AA, AST 13 Edited and revised manuscript: AST, AA, MKJ 14 Approved final version of manuscript: AST, AA, MKJ 15 16 Medical and Research Services, Veterans Affairs Long Beach Healthcare System (VALBHS) 17 and Southern California Institute for Research and Education; Department of Medicine, 18 University of California, Irvine, CA, USA. 19 20 Running head: Importin-α and gastric angiogenesis 21 22 Corresponding author: 23 Andrzej S. Tarnawski, MD, PhD, AGAF 24 VALBHS and the University of California, Irvine 25 5901 E 7 Street, 09/151, Bldg 162, Rm 115 26 Long Beach, CA 90822 27 Phone: (562) 826-5437 28 Fax: (562) 826-5675 29 Email: [email protected] (A.S. Tarnawski) 30 Email: [email protected] 31 32 Grant Support: Supported by the VA Merit Review (to AST). 33 34 Disclosure: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose. 35