Vascular endothelial growth factor-activated basophils in asthmatics

Introduction: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an angiogenic cytokine and a potential stimulator of permeability and lung neovascularization in asthmatics. It also plays an important role in the development of airway remodelling and in activation of many cells, including basophils. Aim: To reveal the possible role of VEGF in the activation of basophils in asthmatics - subgroups with and without irreversible bronchoconstriction. Protein CD203c on the basophils surface was used as the activation marker. To define the possible pathway of basophils VEGF-activation, the influence of a genetic factor (polymorphism den/ ins -2549 -2567 in the VEGF-promoter region) was also considered. Material and methods: Our study involved 82 patients with asthma (40 patients without and 42 patients with irreversible bronchoconstriction) and a group of 40 controls. The flow cytometric methods with anti-CD203c in the samples of basophils with increasing concentrations of VEGF was used for analysis of their activity. Genotyping for VEGF-promoter region was performed by PCR-based methods. Results: Patients with asthma and del/del genotype showed more significant differences in the basophils activation after stimulation with increasing concentrations of VEGF than asthmatics with ins/ins and ins/del genotype (p = 0.023) and controls with del/del genotype (p = 0.0006). Conclusions: Raised basophils VEGF-activation is characteristic for examined patients with asthma and might be associated with presence of polymorphism del18/ins -2549 -2567 in the VEGF-promoter region. Furthermore, it may contribute to the development of airways remodelling - this pathway has not been considered yet.