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Updated: May 31, 2026

A Simple Bioassay for the Evaluation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors
Published on: March 15, 2016
Identification of cis- and trans-acting genetic variants explaining up to half the variation in circulating vascular
Stephanie Debette1, Sophie Visvikis-Siest, Ming-Huen Chen
1Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, B602, 72 East Concord St, Boston, MA 02118, USA.
Rationale:
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) affects angiogenesis, atherosclerosis, and cancer. Although the heritability of circulating VEGF levels is high, little is known about its genetic underpinnings.
Objective:
Our aim was to identify genetic variants associated with circulating VEGF levels, using an unbiased genome-wide approach, and to explore their functional significance with gene expression and pathway analysis.
Methods And Results:
We undertook a genome-wide association study of serum VEGF levels in 3527 participants of the Framingham Heart Study, with preplanned replication in 1727 participants from 2 independent samples, the STANISLAS Family Study and the Prospective Investigation of the Vasculature in Uppsala Seniors study. One hundred forty single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) reached genome-wide significance (P<5×10(-8)). We found evidence of replication for the most significant associations in both replication datasets. In a conditional genome-wide association study, 4 SNPs mapping to 3 chromosomal regions were independently associated with circulating VEGF levels: rs6921438 and rs4416670 (6p21.1, P=6.11×10(-506) and P=1.47×10(-12)), rs6993770 (8q23.1, P=2.50×10(-16)), and rs10738760 (9p24.2, P=1.96×10(-34)). A genetic score including these 4 SNPs explained 48% of the heritability of serum VEGF levels. Six of the SNPs that reached genome-wide significance in the genome-wide association study were significantly associated with VEGF messenger RNA levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Ingenuity pathway analyses showed found plausible biological links between VEGF and 2 novel genes in these loci (ZFPM2 and VLDLR).
Conclusions:
Genetic variants explaining up to half the heritability of serum VEGF levels were identified. These new insights provide important clues to the pathways regulating circulating VEGF levels.
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Comparing Copy Number Variations and SNPs
Copy number variations or CNVs are the structural variations that cover more than 1kb of DNA sequence. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), on the other hand, is a single nucleotide change or a point mutation that is found in more than 1%...