“…RT-PCR were performed to measure 28S rRNA, K16, VEGF-A, VEGF-C, VEGFR2, VEGFR3, NRP-1, NRP-2a, prox-1, PlGF-1 and -2 mRNA, using a Superscript II Reverse Transcriptase (Invitrogen, Merelbeke, Belgium) and Takara Taq polymerase (Biomedical group, Shiga, Japan). RT-PCR amplifications were performed in an automated thermal cycler (GeneAmp PCR System 9700, Applied Biosystems, Foster City, USA) with different pairs of primers as previously described [10,27,28]. For VEGF-A and PlGF, forward and reverse primers were chosen in regions surrounding the alternatively skipped sequences, allowing the discrimination of the various splice variants on the basis of the size of their amplification product [29].…”