A comparison of serum and plasma levels of vascular endothelial growth factor during the menstrual cycle in healthy female volunteers

Abstract

Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels from the existing vasculature, and is essential for the growth and metastasis of most solid tumours. One of the most important growth factors involved in the angiogenesis process is vascular endothelial growth factor. Vascular endothelial growth factor expression has been shown to be regulated by female hormones in breast cancer cell lines, and two previous authors have reported on cyclical variations in serum vascular endothelial growth factor concentrations with conflicting results. No work has been performed on variations in plasma levels of vascular endothelial growth factor during the menstrual cycle. We therefore conducted the first prospective trial to compare serum and plasma levels of vascular endothelial growth factor in healthy pre-menopausal volunteers. Twenty healthy pre-menopausal women were recruited and had blood samples taken over one menstrual cycle with an average of eight samples taken per patient. Plasma and serum samples were then analysed for sex hormones and vascular endothelial growth factor 165. Serum vascular endothelial growth factor levels were found to be significantly higher than plasma vascular endothelial growth factor levels (P50.005). We found no significant difference between serum and plasma vascular endothelial growth factor in the luteal and follicular phases of the cycle. The majority of the measurements for plasma levels of vascular endothelial growth factor at all phases of the cycle were under the limit of detection of the vascular endothelial growth factor ELISA kit. We found no significant correlation between plasma or serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor and either FSH, LH, Oestradiol or Progesterone levels. This study has demonstrated no difference in serum concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor during the different phases of the menstrual cycle in a group of healthy volunteers. We also demonstrated no obvious difference in plasma concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor between the phases of the cycle, but most of the measurements were below the level of accuracy reported by the ELISA kit manufacturer. With the sensitivity of this ELISA test, therefore, we must still regard the question of whether there is a variation in plasma concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor throughout the menstrual cycle as unanswered.

Vascular endothelial growth factor and breast cancer risk

“…The arithmetic mean serum VEGF among controls was 387.5 pg/mL in our population, but ranged from 77.0 pg/mL to 230.0 pg/mL in other studies [13, 14, 23, 24]. Similarly, the median serum VEGF among our controls was 314.2 pg/mL compared to medians ranging from 17.0 pg/mL to 261.1 pg/mL reported in other studies [17-21, 47]. This may reflect the higher sensitivity of the assay used here, the influence of a selection bias within our study, or may indicate that serum VEGF levels among healthy women are higher and more variable than previously thought.…”

“…It has been demonstrated that platelets release VEGF into serum during routine specimen processing [13, 47-51] and that serum VEGF levels are highly correlated with the platelet count [18, 52]. For these reasons, many investigators have stated that plasma is the preferred specimen for measuring circulating VEGF [49-51].…”

Elevated serum vascular endothelial growth factor and development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy in children

“…20 Importantly, serum VEGF concentrations are known to be higher than in plasma secondary to the release of platelet-derived VEGF during the process of clotting. 26,27 Therefore, similar cut-offs cannot be used for serum and plasma samples and serial VEGF measurements in the same patient over time (performed with the same methodology) will likely yield the highest predictive value. Our study suggests that increased serum VEGF may be useful in distinguishing patients who will develop CAV, regardless of severity.…”

A adhesive process after surgical treatment for ovarian apoplexy: Prevention and treatment

“…Дан-ные, которые приводят различные авторы, варьируют в широких пределах: от 6,01 до 774,76 пг/мл -и нередко носят противоречивый характер (см. таблицу) [27][28][29][30][31].…”

“…Полученные нами результаты не выходят за границы нор-мативных значений СЭФР, установленных одними авто-рами [30][31][32][33], и превышают максимальные концентра-ции данного фактора, описанные другими исследователя-ми [27][28][29]34].…”