Vascular endothelial growth factor-A is a major player in vascular development and a potent vascular permeability factor under physiological and pathological conditions by binding to a decoy receptor Flt1 and its primary receptor Flk1. In this study, we show that Flt1 heterozygous (Flt1(+/-)) mouse embryos grow up to adult without life-threatening abnormalities but exhibit a transient embryonic...

One Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene is lost in most renal cell carcinomas while the nondeleted allele exhibits hypermethylation-induced inactivation or inactivating somatic mutations. As a result of these genetic modifications, there is an increased production of VEGF-A and pro-angiogenic growth factors in this disorder. The important role of angiogenesis in the pathogenesis of re...

OBJECTIVE Unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA) is one of the main complications of pregnancy which is usually defined as three or more consecutive pregnancy losses before the 20(th) week of gestation without a known cause. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent angiogenic factor and shown, along with its receptors (VEGFR1, 2), to play important roles in several physi...

VEGF is known to be an endothelial cell mitogen that stimulates angiogenesis by promoting endothelial cell survival, proliferation, migration, and differentiation. Recent studies have suggested that VEGF may play a pivotal role in glomerular sclerosis through extracellular matrix protein (ECM) accumulation, although the signaling mechanism is still unclear. The GTPase RhoA has been implicated i...

Similar to endothelial cells (ECs), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) induces Bcl-2 expression on VEGF receptorpositive (VEGFR1) primary leukemias and cell lines, promoting survival. We investigated the molecular pathways activated by VEGF on such leukemias, by performing a gene expression analysis of VEGFtreated and untreated HL-60 leukemic cells. One gene to increase after VEGF stimul...

Purpose The cellular immune response driven by mononuclear phagocytes (MPs) is crucial for choroidal neovascularization (CNV) progression. Case reports show that a switch from pure anti-vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) intravitreal treatment to aflibercept, a drug with combined anti-VEGF-A and anti-placenta growth factor (PlGF) activity, can be beneficial for patients who do not re...

Placental growth factor (PlGF), a member of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family, mediates wound healing and inflammatory responses, exerting an effect on liver fibrosis and angiogenesis; however, the precise mechanism remains unclear. The aims of this study are to identify the role of PlGF in liver inflammation and fibrosis induced by bile duct ligation (BDL) in mice and to rev...

PURPOSE The apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells has been reportedly induced by the protein transthyretin (TTR). In human ocular tissue, TTR is generally considered to be secreted mainly by retinal pigment epithelial cells (hRPECs); however, whether TTR affects the development of neovascularization in diabetic retinopathy (DR) remains unclear. METHODS Natural and simulated DR m...

Angiogenesis, the sprouting of the existing vascular network to form new vessels, is required for the growth of solid tumors. For this reason, the primary stimulant of angiogenesis, vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF), is an attractive target for tumor therapy. In fact, there are currently numerous anti-VEGF therapies in clinical development for the treatment of various cancers, includi...