Correlative Study of Plasma Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Its Receptors with Acute Mountain Sickness

ObjectiveThe purpose of this paper was to observe the change of the concentrationof VEGF-A, VEGF-B, sFlt-1, sKDR in plasma when people from the plains intoplateau and to obtain the correlation between plasma concentration of VEGF-A,VEGF-B, sFlt-1, sKDR and AMS.MethodsSelect2000recruit soldiers who are han nationality and male as theresearch object. All soldiers fly from Chengdu (505m) to Lhasa (3658m), fill inthe AMS questionnaire after24~48h arrived in Lhasa. Use Lake Louisediagnostic criteria for scoring and diagnosis.Randomly selected20soldiers fromLake Louise scoring7points or more as AMS group and randomly selected20soldiers from Lake Louise scoring1point or less as control group. Using ELISAto detect their venous plasma concentration of VEGF-A, VEGF-B, sFlt-1andsKDR after5days they arrived in Chengdu and after24hours they arrived inLhasa. Compare the concentration of each index between two elevations andbetween AMS group and control group. Study the correlation of every index’sconcentration in two elevation and AMS using Logistic regression.ResultsFrom Chengdu to Lhasa, the plasma VEGF-A concentration of AMS group increased by143.75±67.99pg/ml to167.56±104.25pg/ml (P=0.011), that of thecontrol group changes meaningless. Plasma concentration of VEGF-B, sFlt-1,sKDR in two groups changes were not statistically significant.The plasmaVEGF-A concentration of AMS group (214.41±110.42pg/ml) is higher than thecontrol group (143.75±67.99pg/ml) in Chengdu (P=0.020). That of AMS group(278.51±155.03pg/ml) is higher than the control group (167.56±104.25pg/ml) inLhasa（P=0.011), too. Concentration of VEGF-B, sFlt-1, sKDR between groupswas no statistically significant difference. Concentration of VEGF-A in Lhasa intothe Logistic regression analysis model of AMS related factors.ConclusionsThe occurrence of AMS is associated with elevated plasma VEGF-Aconcentration. High concentration of the plasma VEGF-A is A risk factor for AMS.There is no correlation between plasma concentration of VEGF-B, sFlt-1, sKDRand AMS.