The Serum BFGF Levels And Tissue Microvessel Density In Patients With Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

AIM Angiogenesis may be essential for tumor growth, invasion,and metastasis. During rumorigenesis, the vasculature become activated to grow new capillaries in response to appropriate stimuli.One such stimulus is basic fibroblast growth factor(bFGF). bFGF is a mitogen for endothelial cells and other cells and a potent inducer of angiogenesis. Abnormally elevated levels of bFGF have indeed been reported in serum and urine of patients with various types of cancer. Nevertheless, little is known about how bFGF specifically functions in the occurrence and progress of non- Hodgkin's lymphoma ,and the source of the elevated levels of bFGF in the serum of NHL patients remaines unknown. Thus,we carried out a study to explore the levels of serum bFGF in non-hodgkin's lymphoma patients with different clinical and pathological features; at the same time, the expression of bFGF and the microvessel density(MVD) were detected on the tissue of NHL. METHODS In total of 32 NHL patients(13 newly diagnosed and ,19 in remission after chemotherapy) and 10 healthy controls, ELISA was used to detect their serum level of bFGF;bFGF was qualitatively and quantitatively detected with immunohistochemistryin 20 cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and F-VIIIRAG, as the marker of endothelial cell,was used to explore the microvessel density(MVD) in tissues of NHL. RESULTS ①The mean concentrations of serum bFGF in patients untreated and in remission after chemotherapy were 7.584±1.241 pg·mL-1 and 4.056±1.026 pg · mL-1 , respectively, which were higher than those in healthy controls (1. 700 ± 1. 415) X 10-3pg · mL-1(P<0.05). However, serum bFGF levels in T-cell NHL were significantly higher than those in B-cell (10.735 ± 1.423pg · mL-1 vs 2.732 ± 0.980pg · mL-1, P<0.05). ②Out of 20 cases of NHL patients detected immimohistochernically for bFGF expression, 7 cases were bFGF positive. Expression of bFGF was mainly localized in the cytoplasm of flammatory cells(mononuclear cells,macrophages,granulocytes included ) and a few tumor cells, ③mean MVD of 20 cases(38.90±18.31) was obviously higher than that in benign lymphadenopathy group(12.70 ± 5. 03 .P<0.05); mean MVD in T-cell NHL was significantly higher than that in B-cell (46.83 ± 15.07 vs 27.00 ±16.83, P<0.05). In addition, there was a close relationship between the average amount of MVD and histologic grade of NHL. CONCLUSIONS ①The patients with NHL represent the higher levels of serum bFGF than controls; ②It is possible that the elevated levels of bFGF in NHL patients might be produced mainly by flammatory cells; ③ The NHL patients, especially in T-cell NHL, have significantly higher serum bFGF levels and tissue MVD than controls, The data presented here strongly suggest that bFGF-mediated angiogenesis might closely correlated with the clinical and pathological characterstics in NHL.