A pharmaceutical company is developing a product that would be useful to prevent age-related visual loss. A cohort of individuals 60 to 80 years old is followed for 5 years with periodic examinations of visual acuity, funduscopy, and fluorescein angiography. Some of these individuals develop progressive loss of vision characterized initially by diffuse deposits in Bruch membrane and by atrophy of retinal pigment epithelium. Later, a subset of these patients has a further decline in vision because of development of choroidal neovascularization. An antagonist to which of the following molecules is most likely to be useful in reducing vision loss in this subset of patients?

(A) Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)

(B) Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)

(C) Transforming growth factor-? (TGF-B)

(D) Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)

(E) Epidermal growth factor (EGF