Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3

Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3 (VEGFR-3) is a member of the Class III subfamily of receptor tyrosine kinases plays an essential role in angiogenesis. Expression is almost exclusively restricted to endothelial cells. It acts as a cell-surface receptor for VEGF-A, VEGF-C and VEGF-D and it plays an essential role in the regulation of angiogenesis, vascular development, vascular permeability, and embryonic hematopoiesis. VEGFR-2 promotes proliferation, survival, migration, and differentiation of endothelial cells. It promotes reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton. Isoforms lacking a transmembrane domain, such as isoform 2 and isoform 3, may function as decoy receptors for VEGF-A, VEGF-C and/or VEGF-D. Isoform 2 plays an important role as negative regulator of VEGF-A and VEGF-C-mediated lymphangiogenesis by limiting the amount of free VEGF-A and/or VEGF-C and preventing their binding to FLT4. It modulates FLT1 and FLT4 signaling by forming heterodimers. The binding of vascular growth factors to isoform 1 leads to the activation of several signaling cascades. Activation of PLCG1 leads to the production of the cellular signaling molecules diacylglycerol and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate in addition to the activation of protein kinase C. It also mediates activation of MAPK1/ERK2, MAPK3/ERK1 and the MAP kinase signaling pathway, as well as of the AKT1 signaling pathway.

Swiss-Prot Accession Number: P35916