We report the discovery of a new splicing variant of vascular endothelial growth factor named VEGF183. It is six amino acids shorter than its closest relative, VEGF189, due to the utilization of a conserved alternate splicing donor site within exon 6a. Highly expressed in heart tissue, VEGF183 is detected in transiently transfected COS cells as 28-32-kDa monomers under reduced condition, and 46-kDa dimers under non-reduced condition - the functional unit for all VEGF isoforms.