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Updated: Jun 25, 2026
A Simple Bioassay for the Evaluation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors
Published on: March 15, 2016
Relationship between circulating vascular endothelial growth factor and its soluble receptors in adults with dengue
Raymond C S Seet1, Adeline W L Chow, Amy M L Quek
1Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University, and Department of Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore. raymond_seet@nus.edu.sg
Background:
We performed a case-control study to assess the relationship between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its soluble receptors (sVEGFR-1 and 2) in adult patients with dengue fever (DF) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF).
Methods:
We recruited 60 adult patients (34 DF and 26 DHF) with serologically-confirmed dengue infections, 10 patients with non-hemorrhagic infections, and 31 community-based healthy volunteers. The levels of VEGF, sVEGFR-1, and sVEGFR-2 were measured and the differences in these markers were compared using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), which was adjusted for multiple comparisons.
Results:
We observed lower VEGF levels in DF and DHF compared to study controls (p<0.01). sVEGFR-1 was higher in DHF than DF, whilst sVEGFR-2 was lower in DF and DHF compared to study controls (all p<0.01). In DHF, lower VEGF levels were observed in older patients. The use of a single marker, sVEGFR-1>350 pg/ml, was predictive of DHF.
Conclusion:
The changes in VEGF and its soluble receptors highlight the importance of vascular permeability cytokines in the pathogenesis of DHF.
