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Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) -Promoter C/T 1903, A/C 823 and G/C 2247 (Genbank Accession Nr. AF095785)Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the central mediators of angiogenesis and involved in physiologic processes like wound healing but also pathologic processes like tumor angiogenesis, metastasis, rheumatoid arthritis or diabetic retinopathy. Differential increases in serum VEGF after polytrauma have been associated with occurence of complications like sepsis, MODS and ARDS. VEGF serum levels are also increased in inflammatory bowel disease, in various tumors and in the POEMS syndrome. Recently, 19 (nineteen !) polymorphisms in the VEGF promoter region have been identified, but their functional relevance has not yet been established. However, even in healthy individuals, wide variations in plasma VEGF protein are known, and it is likely that some of this variation is due to these polymorphisms. Tests for the three most common polymorphisms : C/T 1903, A/C 823 and G/C 2247 with allelic frequencies of 47 %, 43 % and 29 % respectively have already been established, and more are on the way.References 1. Strongly enhanced serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) after polytrauma and burn. Grad S et al. Clin Chem Lab Med 1998 Jun;36(6):379-83 2. Vascular endothelial growth factor in serum of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Schurer-Maly CC et al. Scand J Gastroenterol 1997 Sep;32(9):959-60 3. Greatly raised vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in POEMS syndrome. Watanabe O et al. Lancet 1996 Mar 9;347(9002):702 4. Prognostic value of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in primary lung carcinoma. Sheng HY et al. Acta Med Okayama 2000 Jun;54(3):119-26 5. Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor can predict event-free survival in stage II colon cancer. Cascinu S et al. Clin Cancer Res 2000 Jul;6(7):2803-7 6. Hypoxic induction of vascular endothelial growth factor is markedly decreased in diabetic individuals who do not develop retinopathy. Marsh S et al. Diabetes Care 2000 Sep;23(9):1375-80 7. Identification of polymorphisms within the vascular endothelial growth factor (vegf) gene: correlation with variation in vegf protein production. Watson CJ et al. Cytokine 2000 Aug;12(8):1232-5 8. Novel polymorphisms in the promoter and 5' UTR regions of the human vascular endothelial growth factor gene. Brogan IJ et al. Hum Immunol 1999 Dec;60(12):1245-9 |