Expression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Family Messenger RNA in Diseased Thyroid Tissues

• Published in: Surgery today (Tokyo, Japan) Vol. 32; no. 9; pp. 761 - 768
• Main Authors: Tanaka, Katsuhiro, Kurebayashi, Junichi, Sonoo, Hiroshi, Otsuki, Takemi, Yamamoto, Yutaka, Ohkubo, Sumiko, Yamamoto, Shigeru, Shimozuma, Kojiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan 01.09.2002
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biomarkers; Carcinoma, Papillary - metabolism; Endothelial Growth Factors - metabolism; Female; Graves Disease - metabolism; Humans; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins - metabolism; Lymphokines - metabolism; Male; Middle Aged; Nodal involvement; Papillary thyroid carcinoma; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Statistics, Nonparametric; Thyroid Neoplasms - metabolism; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors
• ISSN: 0941-1291; 1436-2813
• DOI: 10.1007/s005950200146

Four different factors have recently been identified in the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)family, namely, VEGF-A, VEGF-B, VEGF-C, and VEGF-D. We investigated the expression of each VEGF gene in diseased thyroids using the multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. The subjects were 61 patients (11 with Graves' disease, 41 with primary papillary carcinoma, and 9 with recurrent papillary carcinoma). A semiquantitative multiplex RT-PCR was designed to compare the RT-PCR products of each VEGF mRNA with beta-actin mRNA products to determine the relative expression. VEGF-A and VEGF-B mRNA were expressed in all patients, VEGF-C mRNA was expressed in 58 (95.1%), and VEGF-D mRNA was expressed in 28 (46.0%). The expression of VEGF-D mRNA was significantly lower than that of the other VEGF mRNAs. The patients with papillary carcinoma and nodal involvement had significantly higher expression of the VEGF-C mRNA than those without nodal involvement. The expression of VEGF-C mRNA did not directly represent nodal involvement; however, the number of metastatic lymph nodes was positively correlated with the expression of VEGF-C mRNA in the primary tumor. To our knowledge, this is the first clinical study on VEGF-B, VEGF-C, and VEGF-D mRNA expression in diseased thyroids. Although VEGF-C mRNA expression was required for nodal involvement, we assume that other factors and mechanisms are also involved.