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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Jan 29.
Published in final edited form as: J Biol Chem. 2002 Nov 9;278(3):1686. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M210250200

FIG. 6. Model for VEGF-induced proliferation in cardiac valve endothelium.

FIG. 6

These results and previous studies (8) demonstrate that two pathways present during valvulogenesis are also active in post-natal heart valves. In this study, we show that a VEGF-mediated pathway, signaling through KDR/VEGF-R2, results in intranuclear NFATc1 and valvular endothelial cell proliferation. A TGF-β-mediated pathway induces differentiation to a mesenchymal phenotype (8). Whether or not cross-talk between these two pathways, as has been shown in the mouse (27), occurs in post-natal valves and affects post-natal valve function or repair warrants investigation.