Angiogenic and angiostatic factors in systemic sclerosis: increased levels of vascular endothelial growth factor are a feature of the earliest disease stages and are associated with the absence of fingertip ulcers

Arthritis Research & Therapy

Marco Matucci-Cerinic⁴  Steffen Gay¹  Ulf Müller-Ladner²  Pius Brühlmann¹  Beat A Michel¹  Renate E Gay¹  Serena Guiducci⁴  Maria L Conforti⁴  Paola Cipriani³  Roberto Giacomelli³  Angela del Rosso⁴  Oliver Distler¹ 

[1]Center of Experimental Rheumatology, Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland

[2]Department of Internal Medicine I, University of Regensburg, Germany

[3]Department of Internal Medicine and Public Health, University of L'Aquila, Italy

[4]Department of Medicine, Section of Rheumatology, University of Florence, Italy

关键词: vascular endothelial growth factor;    systemic sclerosis;    fingertip ulcers;    endostatin;    basic fibroblast growth factor;   

Others  :  1101428
DOI  :  10.1186/ar596

 received in 2002-05-14, accepted in 2002-08-06,  发布年份 2002

【 摘 要 】

To examine whether the lack of sufficient neoangiogenesis in systemic sclerosis (SSc) is caused by a decrease in angiogenic factors and/or an increase in angiostatic factors, the potent proangiogenic molecules vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor, and the angiostatic factor endostatin were determined in patients with SSc and in healthy controls. Forty-three patients with established SSc and nine patients with pre-SSc were included in the study. Serum levels of VEGF, basic fibroblast growth factor and endostatin were measured by ELISA. Age-matched and sex-matched healthy volunteers were used as controls. Highly significant differences were found in serum levels of VEGF between SSc patients and healthy controls, whereas no differences could be detected for endostatin and basic fibroblast growth factor. Significantly higher levels of VEGF were detected in patients with Scl-70 autoantibodies and in patients with diffuse SSc. Patients with pre-SSc and short disease duration showed significant higher levels of VEGF than healthy controls, indicating that elevated serum levels of VEGF are a feature of the earliest disease stages. Patients without fingertip ulcers were found to have higher levels of VEGF than patients with fingertip ulcers. Levels of endostatin were associated with the presence of giant capillaries in nailfold capillaroscopy, but not with any other clinical parameter. The results show that the concentration of VEGF is already increased in the serum of SSc patients at the earliest stages of the disease. VEGF appears to be protective against ischemic manifestations when concentrations of VEGF exceed a certain threshold level.

【 授权许可】

   
2002 Distler et al., licensee BioMed Central Ltd

【 图 表 】

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