Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF, Vascular Permeability Factor, VPF, VEGF-A)

VEGF is characterized by its highly specific mitogenic activity for endothelial cells and its angiogenic effect observed in vitro and in vivo. The VEGF family consists of four isoforms (A-D). VEGF-A is considered the most important of these with respect to tumor angiogenesis, especially the splice variant isoforms VEGF121 and VEGF165 were found to be secreted by a wide spectrum of cell types, including smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts and epithelial cells keratinocytes macrophages, cardiac myocytes and various tumor cells. Inhibition of VEGF with a specific monoclonal antibody can suppress tumor growth in vivo.