Vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs), also known as vasculotropins, are a family of closely related growth factors having a conserved pattern of eight cysteine residues and sharing common VEGF receptors. VEGFs stimulate the proliferation of endothelial cells, induce angiogenesis, promote cell migration, increase vascular permeability, and inhibit apoptosis. The mitogenic activity of VEGFs appears to be mediated by specific VEGF receptors. The target cell specificity of VEGF is restricted to vascular endothelial cells. Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C (VEGFC) is a member of the VEGF subfamily of PDGF-related growth factors. It is the ligand for Flt4 (VEGFR3) and KDR (VEGFR2). VEGFC binds Flt4 and induces tyrosine autophosphorylation of VEGFR3 and VEGFR2. VEGFC also stimulates the migration of bovine capillary endothelial cells in collagen gel. It is a specific growth factor for the lymphatic vascular system and mediates lymphangiogenesis. VEGFC is abundantly expressed in heart and skeletal muscle. Other tissues such as lung and kidney also express VEGFC.
Subunit:
Homodimer; non-covalent and antiparallel.
Subcellular Location:
Secreted.
Tissue Specificity:
Spleen, lymph node, thymus, appendix, bone marrow, heart, placenta, ovary, skeletal muscle, prostate, testis, colon and small intestine and fetal liver, lung and kidney, but not in peripheral blood lymphocyte.
Similarity:
Belongs to the PDGF/VEGF growth factor family.
SWISS:
P49767
Gene ID:
7424
Database links:
Entrez Gene: 7424 Human
Entrez Gene: 22341 Mouse
Entrez Gene: 114111 Rat
Omim: 601528 Human
SwissProt: P49767 Human
SwissProt: P97953 Mouse
SwissProt: O35757 Rat
Unigene: 435215 Human
Unigene: 1402 Mouse
Unigene: 6913 Rat
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