VEGF participation in the regulation of decorin expression in human breast stromal fibroblasts. Human breast stromal fibroblasts were serum starved for 24 h and then treated with VEGF (10, 20 and 50 ng/mL) (A), were exposed to 20 μΜ of the FGFR and VEGFR inhibitor SU5402, 1 μΜ of the VEGFR inhibitor SU5416 and 21 nM of the FGFR inhibitor AZD4547 (B) or were serum starved for 24 h and then treated with bFGF (10 ng/mL) (C) for 24 h before RNA extraction, first-strand cDNA synthesis and real-time PCR analysis with glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) serving as the reference gene. Relative mRNA levels compared to the respective untreated control are presented as means ± standard deviations of three experiments. Statistically significant differences in comparison to the respective control without the inhibitor are designated by asterisks (*) (Student’s t test, p < 0.05). IR: ionizing radiation.