Recombinant rat PEDF (GenBank accession no. NM_177927) was synthesized by Cusabio Biotech, Co., Ltd. (Wuhan, China). In brief, 293T cells were transfected with the 20 μg recombinant vector pGEX 6P-1 (GE Healthcare, Chicago, IL, USA), containing glutathione S-transferase (GST)-tagged PEDF using Lipofectamine® 3000 according to the manufacturer's protocols. GST-tagged PEDF proteins were purified by high-pressure liquid chromatography purification (>90% purity) and amino-terminal sequence determination (23 ,24 (link)). The resultant proteins were soluble in aqueous solutions.