TY - JOUR T1 - Elevated vascular endothelial growth factor in systemic sclerosis. JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 1529 LP - 1533 VL - 30 IS - 7 AU - Jin-Jung Choi AU - Do-June Min AU - Mi-La Cho AU - So-Youn Min AU - Seon-Joon Kim AU - Shin-Seok Lee AU - Kyung-Su Park AU - Young-Il Seo AU - Wan-Uk Kim AU - Sung-Hwan Park AU - Chul-Soo Cho Y1 - 2003/07/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/30/7/1529.abstract N2 - OBJECTIVE: To determine the serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and to search for relationships between its serum levels and the clinical manifestations. METHODS: Serum levels of VEGF in patients with SSc and healthy controls were determined by ELISA. At the time of blood sampling, individual organ involvement was assessed, and a video microscope and PC based image processing were used to visualize nailfold capillaries and to quantify capillary density. RESULTS: Serum levels of VEGF in 48 patients with SSc were significantly higher than in 30 controls (432 +/- 356 vs 91 +/- 64 pg/ml; p < 0.001). Patients with diffuse cutaneous SSc (n = 21) had higher levels of serum VEGF than those with limited cutaneous SSc (n = 27) (432 +/- 356 vs 135 +/- 127 pg/ml; p < 0.001). Serum VEGF levels correlated well with the extent of skin sclerosis, as determined by modified Rodnan skin score (r = 0.656, p < 0.001) and serum TGF-beta levels (r = 0.530, p < 0.001). In particular, serum VEGF levels were inversely correlated with the capillary density of nailfold (r = -0.649, p < 0.001). However, no significant differences were found in the serum levels of VEGF between patients with systemic organ involvement and those without. CONCLUSION: The extent of skin sclerosis may contribute to the elevation of serum VEGF and high VEGF levels may serve as a surrogate indicator of capillary damage in SSc. ER -