%0 Thesis %B University of Helsinki %D 1997 %T Functional Analysis of VEGF-B and VEGF-C %X Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an important regulator of endothelial cell proliferation and migration dur- ing embryonic vasculogenesis and angiogenesis as well as in pathological angiogenesis. The recently cloned new factors structurally homologous to VEGF were designated as VEGF-B/VRF and VEGF-C/VRP. The receptor for VEGF-B is unknown. VEGF-C is the ligand for FLT4, a receptor tyrosine kinase whose expression becomes restricted largely to lymphatic endothelia during development and that is related to VEGF receptors FLT1 and KDR. In this study keratin 14-promoter-directed VEGF-C overexpression in the basal epidermis of transgenic mice was capa- ble of promoting an abundant growth of extensive lymphatic-like vessel structures in the dermis, including large vessel lacunae resembling in their histopathology the human condition known as lymphangioma. Thus, VEGF-C appears to induce selective angiogenesis of the lymphatic vessels in vivo. In contrast, preliminary data on mice, which overexpress VEGF-B under the same promoter, does not yet allow us draw any conclusions about its possible biological function. Recombinant biologically active human VEGF-C was produced using the baculovirus system. Unpurified and purified VEGF-C were used to confirm the interaction of VEGF-C with KDR, a fact recently missed by others. The recombinant protein is going to be used in a large number of future experiments. The production of VEGF-B seems to be intrinsically difficult in non-mammalian cells. Although quantitatively satisfying results could not be obtained yet, the purified growth factor will be used in experiments to identify its receptor. %B University of Helsinki %I Univeristy of Helsinki %C Helsinki %V Master's Thesis %G English %U http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe977347 %9 M.Sc.