Clinical Study Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Tear Samples of Patients with Systemic Sclerosis

Copyright © 2015 Aniko ́ Rentka et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Systemic sclerosis is an autoimmune disease, characterized by widespread small vessel vasculopathy, immune dysregulation with production of autoantibodies, and progressive fibrosis. Changes in levels of proangiogenic cytokines had already been determined largely in serum. Our aim was to assess the levels of VEGF in human tears of patients with SSC. Patients and methods. Forty-three patients (40 female and 3 men, mean (SD) age 61 (48–74) years) with SSc and 27 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Basal tear sample collection and tear velocity investigations were carried out followed by an ophthalmological examination. Total protein concentrations and VEGF levels were determined in tear samples. Results. The average collected tear fluid volume developed 10.