Vascular endothelial growth factor causes endothelial proliferation after vascular injury.

Vascular endothelial growth factor was infused into rat carotid arteries for 3 minutes immediately after endothelial denudation by balloon injury. Endothelial proliferation was determined by immunohistochemical labelling of proliferating cell nuclear antigen using Häutchen preparations. The proliferation index, or number of proliferating cells/total cells, measured at 25.5 or 30 hours was markedly increased after infusion of vascular endothelial growth factor. In addition, the total number of proliferating cells increased with increasing doses up to 100 micrograms total dose per infusion. These data indicate that infusion of vascular endothelial growth factor increases endothelial cell proliferation after mechanical denudation injury of the vascular wall.