Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C (VEGF-C)
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C (VEGF-C) is active in angiogenesis and endothelial cell growth. It has roles in the venous and lymphatic vascular systems during embryogenesis and also in the maintenance of differentiated lymphatic endothelium in adults. It functions in angiogenesis of the venous and lymphatic vascular systems during embryogenesis and in the maintenance of differentiated lymphatic endothelium in adults. Binds and activates VEGFR-2 (KDR/FLK1) and VEGFR-3 (FLT4) receptors. VEGF-C is found in spleen, lymph node, thymus, appendix, bone marrow, heart, placenta, ovary, skeletal muscle, prostate, testis, colon, small intestine and fetal liver, lung and kidney, but not in peripheral blood lymphocyte. VEGF-C undergoes a complex proteolytic maturation which generates a variety of processed secreted forms with increased activity toward VEGFR-3. Only the fully processed form can activate VEGFR-2. VEGF-C first forms an antiparallel homodimer linked by disulfide bonds but before secretion, a cleavage occurs between Arg-227 and Ser-228 producing an heterotetramer. The next extracellular step of the processing removes the N-terminal propeptide. Finally the mature VEGF-C is composed mostly of two VEGF homology domains (VHDs) bound by non-covalent interactions.
Swiss-Prot Accession Number: P49767