Expression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A and Its Type 1 Receptor in Supratentorial Neoplasm

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the main angiogenesis regulators in solid cancers. The brain solid tumors are life threatening diseases in which angiogenesis is an important phase of development and progression.
In the present study the gene expression of VEGF-A and VEGF receptor (VEGF-R1) were evaluated in CNS brain tumors.

The quantification of the VEGF-A and VEGF-R1 expressions was carried out by real-time PCR on fresh biopsies of 38 supratentorial brain tumors compared to 30 non-tumoral tissues. Then the correlations were investigated with clinic-pathological and demographic factors of the patients.

PCR products sequencing confirmed the validity of the qRT-PCR. Although, VEGF-A and VEGF-R1 expression showed increased trends with progression of cell proliferation in different stages of astrocytoma (p=0.006,p=0.07, respectively), in case of VEGF-R1 did not met 95% confidence interval in other brain tumors. An increasing trend in VEGF-A and a declining trend in VEGF-R1 expression from stage-I to II were observed in meningioma.VEGF-A and VEGF-R1 expressions had not significant correlation with age and gender. Although, peritumoral brain edema (PTBE) in astrocytoma was significantly associated with tumor stages (p=0.01), VEGF-A and VEGF-R1 had not associations with PTBE in meningioma and metastasis.

VEGF-A is a valuable factor for prognosis of PTBE and malignancy stage in astrocytoma, and useful for monitoring of the treatment approaches.