The World Health Organization reference reagent for vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF165.

Preparations of human sequence recombinant vascular endothelial growth factor-165 (VEGF165) synthesized in Escherichia coli were formulated and lyophilized at NIBSC. Following evaluation at NIBSC, the first preparation, 01/424, has been distributed since 2002 as a NIBSC research reagent, but shows variation between ampoules in the volume and crystalline appearance of the lyophilized plug. A second preparation, 02/286, was subsequently lyophilized in a different formulation.