3.1 Effects of Pei's Shengxue Granules on Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor VEGF

3.1 Effects of Pei's Shengxue Granules on Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF)

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a macromolecular active substance discovered in recent years, playing an important biological role in changes in vascular permeability, proliferation of vascular endothelial cells, and angiogenesis, and is closely related to tumor growth, infiltration, and metastasis. [28] VEGF's biological activity is mediated through VEGFR-specific receptors expressed on endothelial cells, with multiple functions: ① Enhancing vascular permeability to support tumor cell growth; ② Stimulating the proliferation of vascular endothelial cells and secreting matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) to degrade the extracellular matrix, forming capillary loops under the action of integrins; ③ Upregulating the expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), inducing endothelial cells to express proteolytic enzymes, interstitial collagenase, and tissue factor to promote angiogenesis; ④ By binding to receptors expressed on lymphatic endothelial cells, lymphatic vessels proliferate, and cancer cells, due to increased contact points with lymphatic vessels, easily invade lymphatic vessels, leading to lymph node metastasis.

Using immunohistochemistry to measure VEGF expression in tumor tissue of tumor-bearing mice, the experiment showed that the number of VEGF-positive cells in tumor tissue of all PG dosage groups was lower than that of the model group to varying degrees, with significant differences between the high- and medium-dose PG groups and the model group (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between the PG dosage groups and the ZG group (p>0.05). The experimental results show that PG can reduce VEGF expression in tumor tissue of tumor-bearing mice, inhibit tumor angiogenesis, and thus achieve an anti-tumor effect.