Platelet‐derived endothelial cell growth factor/thymidine phosphorylase expression in normal tissues: An immunohistochemical study

Abstract

Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels from the existing vascular bed. It is a complex multi‐step process controlled by a number of angiogenic factors. One such factor is platelet‐derived endothelial cell growth factor (PD‐ECGF), recently shown to be thymidine phosphorylase (TP), which is angiogenic in several in vivo assays and tumour systems. PD‐ECGF/TP catalyes the reversible phosphorylation of thymidine to deoxyribose‐1‐ phosphate and thymine. Since PD‐ECGF/TP has an important role in cellular metabolism and in angiogenesis and its expression has been only partially characterized, we raised a monoclonal antibody against recombinant PD‐ECGF/TP and used an immunohistochemical a..