Angiogenic Polypeptides in Breast Cancer: Expression of Mrna’s in Primary Human Tumours, MCF-7 Cell Transfection and Xenograft Models

Screening of 84 primary human breast carcinomas for the mRNA expression of seven angiogenic polypeptides showed that the most commonly expressed and/or the most highly expressed when compared to normal breast tissue were vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor/thymidine Phosphorylase (PDECGF/TP)1. The neurokines midkine (MK) and pleiotrophin were also fairly commonly expressed in tumour but not normal tissue (unpublished data from this group and ref. 1).