In cultured motor neurons pretreatment with VEGF-A leads to upregulation of the glutamate receptor subunit GluR2, making them less vulnerable to AMPA receptor mediated excitotoxicity [67], a process that has been implicated to contribute to motor neuron degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Here, VEGFA is linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.