Recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 effectively inhibits angiogenesis in vivo

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in both physiological and pathological angiogenesis. VEGF receptor‑1 (VEGFR‑1) acts as a decoy VEGF receptor that enables the regulation of VEGF on the vascular endothelium. In the present study, the recombinant human VEGFR1D1‑3/Fc (rhVEGFR‑1), which contains key domains for VEGF binding, was cloned and expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. The rhVEGFR‑1 protein was purified using protein‑A affinity chromatography. The molecular weight of rhVEGFR‑1 was found to be ~162 and 81 kD in non‑reducing and reducing SDS‑PAGE, respectively. The majority of the final protein products were in the dimeric conformation. Western blot analysis revealed that rhVEGFR‑1 was only capable of binding to the full glycan form of rhVEGF‑165 and rhVEGF‑121. The dissociation constant for the binding of rhVEGFR‑1 to VEGF‑165, detected using Biacore, was 285 pM. In addition, rhVEGFR‑1 inhibited the proliferation and migration of human microvascular endothelial cells. In vivo experiments also demonstrated that rhVEGFR‑1 inhibited chicken chorioallantoic membrane neovascularization and angiogenesis in nude mice. In conclusion, an anti‑angiogenic recombinant soluble VEGFR was expressed (up to 5 mg/l) in CHO cells and was shown to be capable of inhibiting neovascularization in vivo and in vitro.