VEGFB and Parkinson disease: Furthermore, in an in vitro cell line model for PD, VEGFB-VEGFR1 upregulates genes involved in mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism and protects against stress-induced mitochondrial membrane potential breakdown in DRG cells, indicating that one of the mechanisms of VEGFB-induced neuroprotection is through prevention of mitochondrial damage [201, 203, 207].