The study investigates the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in preventing apoptosis in primary human umbilical vein endothelial (HUVE) cells. VEGF was found to prevent serum starvation-induced apoptosis at concentrations between 10 and 100 ng/ml. The addition of VEGF to serum-starved HUVE cells led to a significant induction of Bcl-2 and A1, two antiapoptotic proteins, as measured by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot analysis. Overexpression of Bcl-2 through biolistic transfection experiments in HUVE cells was shown to prevent endothelial cell death in the absence of VEGF, indicating that Bcl-2 plays a crucial role in mediating the survival activity of VEGF on endothelial cells. The findings suggest that Bcl-2 and A1 are novel VEGF target genes involved in the survival signaling pathway of VEGF.The study investigates the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in preventing apoptosis in primary human umbilical vein endothelial (HUVE) cells. VEGF was found to prevent serum starvation-induced apoptosis at concentrations between 10 and 100 ng/ml. The addition of VEGF to serum-starved HUVE cells led to a significant induction of Bcl-2 and A1, two antiapoptotic proteins, as measured by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot analysis. Overexpression of Bcl-2 through biolistic transfection experiments in HUVE cells was shown to prevent endothelial cell death in the absence of VEGF, indicating that Bcl-2 plays a crucial role in mediating the survival activity of VEGF on endothelial cells. The findings suggest that Bcl-2 and A1 are novel VEGF target genes involved in the survival signaling pathway of VEGF.