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VEGF concentrations in tumor lysates from ovarian cancer patients
Author(s) -
Meng YuJu Gloria,
Gutierrez Johnny,
Konecny Gottfried,
Wong Wai Lee
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.4.a536-b
Subject(s) - vascular endothelial growth factor , gene isoform , vegf receptors , angiogenesis , polyclonal antibodies , ovarian cancer , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , medicine , biology , cancer , endocrinology , antibody , immunology , biochemistry , gene
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to play a key role in the induction of angiogenesis in many tumor types. VEGF is expressed as several isoforms consisting of 121, 165, 189 and 206 amino acids through alternative splicing. Less frequently found isoforms such as VEGF 145 and VEGF 183 were also reported. In addition, VEGF can be processed to shorter forms by proteolysis, for example, VEGF 113 by metalloproteinases and VEGF 110 by plasmin. Previously, an ELISA (VEGF 165‐206 ELISA) for measuring VEGF 165 was described. This ELISA is also expected to detect VEGF 189 and VEGF 206 . We later developed an ELISA (VEGF 121–206 ELISA) which measured recombinant VEGF consisting of amino acids 8–109 of VEGF 165 . Therefore, this ELISA is expected to measure all VEGF isoforms and processed VEGF like VEGF 113 and VEGF 110 . We measured VEGF concentrations in tumor lysates from 256 patients in these ELISAs and obtained a good correlation. The measurable VEGF concentrations determined by VEGF 165–206 and VEGF 121–206 ELISAs were 0.094–74 (median 0.58; n=236) and 0.13–520 (median 4.0; n=228) fmol/mg protein, respectively. In the 164 patients with measurable VEGF concentrations in both assays, VEGF concentrations measured using VEGF 165–206 ELISA was 24±17% of those measured using VEGF 121–206 ELISA. These results indicate that VEGF 121 and possibly processed VEGF fragments may be present at a significant amount in the tumors from ovarian cancer patients.