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Structure, Expression and Receptor-Binding Properties of Novel Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors

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Vascular Growth Factors and Angiogenesis

Part of the book series: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology ((CT MICROBIOLOGY,volume 237))

Abstract

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), an important regulator of endothelial cell physiology, was identified some 10 years ago and has, since then, been recognised as the major growth factor relatively specific for endothelial cells (reviewed in Ferrara and Davis-Smyth 1997). VEGF is a dimeric glycoprotein, closely related to placenta growth factor (PIGF). Both VEGF and PIGF are distantly related in structure to the platelet-derived growth factors A and B (PDGF A and PDGF B) (Heldin et al. 1993). Three novel growth factors belonging to the family of VEGF, PIGF and the two PDGFs were recently discovered. These growth factors, termed vascular endothelial growth factor B/VEGF-related factor (VEGF-B/VRF) (Grimmond et al. 1996; Olofsson et al. 1996a), vascular endothelial growth factor C/VEGF-related protein (VEGF-C/VRP) (Joukov et al. 1996; Lee et al. 1996)] and c-fos-induced growth factor (F1GF) (Orlandini et al. 1996) share structural features typical of the VEGF/PDGF growth factor family. The prominent structural similarities between VEGF-related growth factors, several of which target endothelial cells, and FIGF suggest the possibility that F1GF also targets endothelial cells, despite its identification as a fibroblast growth factor. Based on these criteria, we propose that the name FIGF should be changed to VEGF-D to indicate its structural and functional relatedness to other VEGFs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Stockholm Branch, Box 240, Stockholm, S-171 77, Sweden

    U. Eriksson

  2. Molecular/Cancer Biology Laboratory, Haartman Institute, University of Helsinki, PL21 (Haartmaninkatu 3), FIN-00014, Finland

    K. Alitalo

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  1. U. Eriksson
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  1. Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology Biomedical Center, University of Uppsala, Box 575, Uppsala, S-75123, Sweden

    Lena Claesson-Welsh

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Eriksson, U., Alitalo, K. (1999). Structure, Expression and Receptor-Binding Properties of Novel Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors. In: Claesson-Welsh, L. (eds) Vascular Growth Factors and Angiogenesis. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, vol 237. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59953-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59953-8_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64195-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-59953-8

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