For wound healing assays, HDMECs were seeded in a 48-well tissue culture plate until they reached confluence. In the middle of each well, a wound line was induced using a pipette as previously described [28] . Each well was treated with VEGF alone (25 ng/ml), PSG1-Fc alone (100 and 500 ng/ml), FLAG-Fc alone (100 and 500 ng/ml), PSG1-Fc (100 and 500 ng/ml) plus VEGF (25 ng/ml), and FLAG-Fc (100 and 500 ng/ml) plus VEGF (25 ng/ml). Basal medium alone was used as a negative control. The wounding area of each well was observed by phase-contrast microscopy (Leica). These areas were observed daily and photographed using a digital camera mounted on the phasecontrast microscope. The wounding distance was measured using the morphometric program Optimas (Optimast).