Investigative ophthalmology & visual science
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Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. · May 1999
Correlation of VEGF expression by leukocytes with the growth and regression of blood vessels in the rat cornea.
To determine the temporal and spatial relationships between neovascularization and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA and protein expression in the rat cornea after cautery with silver nitrate. ⋯ VEGF production by leukocytes correlates temporally and spatially with cautery-induced angiogenesis in the rat cornea. Both inflammatory products and hypoxia appear to sufficiently increase VEGF expression near the cautery lesion to increase vascular permeability of limbal vessels and induce endothelial cell migration and proliferation.