Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Cartilage Development and Osteoarthritis.

ABSTRACT: Genome wide studies indicate that vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF) is associated with osteoarthritis (OA), and increased VEGF expression correlates with increased disease severity. VEGF is also a chondrocyte survival factor during development and essential for bone formation, skeletal growth and postnatal homeostasis. This raises questions of how the important embryonic and postnatal functions of VEGF can be reconciled with an apparently destructive role in OA. Addressing these questions, we find that VEGF acts as a survival factor in growth plate chondrocytes during development but only up until a few weeks after birth in mice. It is also required for postnatal differentiation of articular chondrocytes and the timely ossification of bones in joint regions. In surgically induced

SUBMITTER: Nagao M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5638804 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature