INDUCTION OF DECAY-ACCELERATING FACTOR (DAF) BY VEGF ON VASCULAR ENDOTHELIUM: INVOLVEMENT OF A VEGF-R2, PKCα/ε, p38/JNK MAPK-DEPENDENT AND PI-3K-INDEPENDENT CYTOPROTECTIVE SIGNALING PATHWAY
Furthermore, FGF-2-induced SMC proliferation and thymidine incorporation was abrogated in SMCs overexpressing sFRP4. Conclusions: 1) Human vascular SMCs express both sFRP1 and sFRP4 but only sFRP4 is coordinately regulated with SMC growth. 2) sFRP4 inhibits proliferation of SMCs and blocks FGF-2 induced mitogenesis. These findings implicate an important role for Wnt mediated signaling in SMCs and indicate that sFRP4 may be an important extracellular regulator of SMC replication.