ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate expressions of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family and their receptors in cardiac repair/remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI).Methods The infarcted rat heart model were constructed,real time PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blots (WB) were used.Results Compared to the normal myocardium,VEGF-A was significantly decreased in MI group during the 42 days observation period but decreased at day 1,which was 0.89 ±0.04 of control group in D1,0.25 ±0.03 of control in D14; VEGF-B was significantly suppressed in the infarcted heart,which level was 0.09 ± 0.04 of control; However,VEGF-C and VEGF-D were markedly increased in the infarcted heart in MI group,which was 5.31 ± 0.21 and 9.24 ± 0.47 times of control.Meanwhile,VEGFR-1 and 2 were 0.11 ± 0.02 and 0.14 ± 0.04 of control in the infarcted heart,but VEGFR-3 was significantly increased in blood vessels,6.81 ± 0.42 times of control group.Conclusions VEGF isoforms and VEGFR subtypes were differentially expressed in the infarcted heart.It suggests that these isoforms may regulate multiple responses during cardiac repair/remodeling.