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MR Vol.13 No.2 indexに戻る
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MODERN RHEUMATOLOGY
Vol.13 No.2 |
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Levels of vascular endothelial growth factor
and hepatocyte growth factor in sera of patients with rheumatic diseases |
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| Naoaki Hashimoto, Tsuyoshi Iwasaki,
Masayasu Kitano, Atsushi Ogata, Teruaki Hamano |
| Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology,
Department of Internal Medicine, Hyogo College of Medicine, 1-1 Mukogawa-cho,
Nishinomiya 663-8501, Japan |
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| Abstract |
| Angiogenesis plays an important role in the
progression of rheumatic disease. We measured the levels of vascular
endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)
in sera from patients with rheumatic diseases and investigated
whether these angiogenic factors would be useful in the evaluation
of rheumatic diseases. Serum VEGF and HGF levels were determined
using ELISA in 128 patients with rheumatic diseases and in 11 healthy
controls. Serum VEGF and HGF levels were significantly higher in
patients with rheumatic diseases compared to healthy controls [VEGF,
312 ± 20?pg/ml versus 61 ± 8?pg/ml (mean ± SE), P < 0.001;
HGF, 935 ± 36?pg/ml versus 413 ± 49?pg/ml, P < 0.01]. Serum
VEGF and HGF levels were significantly elevated in patients with
adult Still's disease (VEGF, 1021 ± 258?pg/ml; HGF, 1500
± 295?pg/ml) and were relatively increased in patients with active
rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (VEGF, 359 ± 94?pg/ml) and systemic sclerosis
(SSc) (VEGF, 356 ± 43?pg/ml; HGF, 1294 ± 224?pg/ml). HGF levels
correlated with the clinical course and disease severity in rheumatic
disease patients. VEGF levels correlated with the presence of Raynaud's
phenomenon (P < 0.05), interstitial lung disease (ILD) (P < 0.05),
and serum KL-6 levels (P < 0.01), whereas HGF levels correlated
with cryoglobulinemia (P < 0.05), ILD (P < 0.05), serum C-reactive
protein (CRP) (P < 0.05), thrombomodulin (P < 0.05), and
KL-6 levels (P < 0.05) in rheumatic disease patients. VEGF levels
correlated with the skin scores and KL-6 levels in SSc patients
and also correlated with the disease activity of RA patients. These
data suggest that serum VEGF and HGF levels are related to rheumatic
disease activity and the presence of complications. Analysis of
VEGF and HGF may be useful in the clinical evaluation of rheumatic
disease patients. |
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| Key words |
| Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) ・
KL-6 ・ Rheumatic diseases (RA) ・ Vascular endothelial growth factor
(VEGF) ・ Vasculitis |
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