The possible role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in gastric ulcer healing: effect of sofalcone on VEGF release in vitro.

Angiogenesis plays an important role in gastric ulcer repair. Several growth factors are involved in angiogenesis and, of these, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has received considerable attention because it is the only factor that acts specifically on endothelial cells and, unlike other angiogenic growth factors, has the hydrophobic signal peptide required for extracellular transport according to classical secretory pathways. We have lately demonstrated the role of VEGF in gastric ulcer repair. Previous reports confirmed that sofalcone has remarkable effects on gastric ulcer healing, which may be mediated by its stimulatory effect on prostaglandin (PG) release in gastric cells. Our data indicate that PGs stimulate VEGF expression in gastric fibroblasts. In this report we hypothesize that the clinical effect of sofalcone is mediated by VEGF expression and we demonstrate that sofalcone stimulates VEGF release by gastric fibroblasts in primary culture.