Article Text
Abstract
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the most severe form of acute lung injury (ALI), remains a devastating condition with a high mortality. It is characterised by alveolar injury and increased pulmonary vascular permeability. Vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) was identified by its properties to increase permeability and act as a cellular growth factor, hence its potential for a key role in the pathogenesis of ALI/ARDS. This review describes the basic biology of VEGF and its receptors as an essential prerequisite to discussing the available and sometimes paradoxical published data, before considering a paradigm for the role of VEGF in the human lung.
- AE, alveolar epithelial
- ALI, acute lung injury
- AP, activator protein
- ARDS, acute respiratory distress syndrome
- FLT, fms-like tyrosine kinase
- HUVEC, human umbilical venous endothelial cell
- LPS, lipopolysaccharide
- NRP, neuropilin
- VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor
- VEGF-R1, VEGF-R2, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 and 2
- vascular endothelial growth factor
- acute respiratory distress syndrome
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- AE, alveolar epithelial
- ALI, acute lung injury
- AP, activator protein
- ARDS, acute respiratory distress syndrome
- FLT, fms-like tyrosine kinase
- HUVEC, human umbilical venous endothelial cell
- LPS, lipopolysaccharide
- NRP, neuropilin
- VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor
- VEGF-R1, VEGF-R2, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 and 2
Footnotes
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Supported by The Wellcome Trust (074702/Z/04/Z).
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Competing interests: none.