@Article{,
AUTHOR = {Dorota Kierszniewska-Stepień, Tadeusz Pietras, Pawel Górski, Henryk Stepien},
TITLE = {Serum vascular endothelial growth factor and its receptor level in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease},
JOURNAL = {European Cytokine Network},
VOLUME = {17},
YEAR = {2006},
NUMBER = {1},
PAGES = {75--79},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/ECN/v17n1/66171},
ISSN = {1952-4005},
ABSTRACT = {Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disorder which encompasses not only
morphological changes in parenchyma, central and peripheral airways but also in structural and functional
changes of pulmonary vessels. The role of angiogenic factors leading to abnormal pulmonary vessel remodeling
remains unclear. We have investigated a cytokine vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) known to be
involved in angiogenesis, and its soluble receptors (sVEGF R1, sVEGF R2) in the serum of 20 patients with mild
COPD and 10 patients with very severe COPD, using sensitive enzyme-linked immunoassays. The control group
consisted of 10 healthy volunteers. We found that the concentration of VEGF in the serum of patients with
mild COPD was significantly higher (665.31 ± 102.20 pg/mL) in comparison to the control group
(318.94 ± 51.40 pg/mL; p < 0.05), and there was a strong negative correlation with FEV1 (r = -0.859; p < 0.001).
Additionally, the level of sVEGF R1 in the serum of patients with very severe COPD was also significantly higher
(96.60 ± 26.85 pg/mL) than in the control (36.01 ± 3.29 pg/mL; p < 0.05) and a positive correlation between the
serum level of sVEGF R1 and FEV1 was found (r = 0.748; p < 0.01). Moreover, we observed an insignificant
increase of sVEGF R2 in the serum of patients with mild COPD and those with very severe COPD. These results
suggest that VEGF and sVEGF R1 receptor are involved in the development of abnormal pulmonary vascular
remodelling in patients with COPD.},
DOI = {}
}