Vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) is a potent mitogen, secreted by bovine pituitary folliculo-stellate cells, that appears to be specific for vascular endothelial cells. This specificity suggests that VEGF may be an ideal human therapeutic agent for indications where reendothelialization is desired in the absence of proliferation by other transluminal coronary angioplasty) or in conjunction with vascular grafting. The long-range goals of the project are therefore to establish a recombinant source for human VEGF, and to use the recombinant protein to determine in animal models and (if indicated) human clinical trials the efficacy of VEGF for indications involving vascular re-endothelialization. The goals of Phase I of this project are to (i) use N-terminal protein sequence information already obtained to isolate bovine and human clones for the VEGF coding region; and (ii) use expression of the clones, and inactivation experiments using anti-peptide antibodies, to demonstrate that the sequence obtained indeed represents the N-terminus of the VEGF protein, and to initiate recombinant production.
| Tischer, E; Mitchell, R; Hartman, T et al. (1991) The human gene for vascular endothelial growth factor. Multiple protein forms are encoded through alternative exon splicing. J Biol Chem 266:11947-54 |
