Growth factors from platelets, monocytes, and endothelium: their role in cell proliferation.

Of the various biological roles assigned to growth factors at the beginning of this article, the factors described here are largely associated with the response to injury. These represent a special type of factor since two of them, PDGF and MDGF, are carried in the circulation by the platelet and the monocyte respectively, and can therefore be delivered to sites where a proliferative response would be an important event in the restitution of tissue continuity. The role of the endothelial-derived growth factor in these phenomena is not clear at present. Atherosclerosis has been suggested to represent a protective proliferative response that has gone awry and become disease. In this instance both PDGF and MDGF could play important roles, since platelets have been associated with the early injury phenomenon and macrophages appear to be present in virtually all phases of the development of the lesions of atherosclerosis from the fatty streak to the fibrous plaque and the complicated lesion. In each of these circumstances the macrophage may be important in lesion progression and possibly in lesion initiation. PDGF may also be important in initiation of some lesions, and in some instances would undoubtedly participate in the fibroproliferative response that occurs during organization of a thrombus.