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Updated: Aug 7, 2026

A Simple Bioassay for the Evaluation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors
Published on: March 15, 2016
Vascular endothelial growth factor inhibits endothelial cell apoptosis induced by tumor necrosis factor-alpha:
I Spyridopoulos1, E Brogi, M Kearney
1St Elizabeth's Medical Center, Department of Medicine, Boston, MA 02134, USA.
Abstract:
A series of experiments was performed to determine whether vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), in addition to its endothelial cell specific mitogenic activity, can also protect endothelial cells from toxin-induced programmed cell death. Apoptosis was induced in endothelial cell culture with tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). Simultaneous exposure of endothelial cells to VEGF resulted in a dose dependent inhibition of apoptosis when evaluated by: (1) direct counting of cells with morphologic features of apoptosis after acridine orange staining; (2) analysis of DNA fragmentation by (a) agarose gel electrophoresis and (b) fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS); and (3) viability assays dependent upon mitochondrial function. Induction of fibronectin and beta 3 integrin expression in endothelial cells by VEGF suggests that altered adhesion molecule expression may explain this survival effect.
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