The interactions between growth factors and sulphated glycosaminoglycans (GAG) have been extensively studied. The aim of this study is to investigate if growth factors would show specificity of action on the synthesis and shedding of sulphated GAG, using two different cell lines: endothelial and smooth muscle cells. The cells were grown in the presence or absence of growth factors: EGF, FGF2, VEGF121, VEGF165. Transfection assays were also performed using recombinant pcDNA3.1, containing VEGF165 cDNA. In order to analyse the different types of GAG the cells were metabolically labelled with [(35)S]-sulphate. At low doses, VEGF121 was the only growth factor able to increase both the synthesis and secretion of heparan sulphate (HS) in endothelial cells. Over expression of VEGF165 stimulated HS synthesis in both cells. The combined results showed that growth factors affect GAG synthesis in a cell specific and dose dependent manner.