This gene product is a member of the PDGF/VEGF growth factor family. It is a mitogen that specifically acts on endothelial cells and has various effects, including mediating increased vascular permeability, inducing angiogenesis, vasculogenesis, endothelial cell growth, promoting cell migration, and inhibiting apoptosis. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene. Also, alternative translation initiation from non-AUG (CUG) and AUG start sites in some transcript variants, give rise to additional isoforms. [provided by RefSeq].