Vascular endothelial growth factor: a blood biomarker in canine idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Abstract

Canine idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (CIPF) is a progressive interstitial lung disease that mainly occurs in the West Highland white terrier (WHWT) breed. CIPF diagnosis is challenging. Identification of measurable markers of fibrosis might be helpful in this circumstance. VEGF is an angiogenic regulator involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes. The aims of the present study were (1) to investigate the potential role of VEGF as a peripheral blood biomarker in CIPF; and (2) to investigate possible breed-related differences in basal VEGF concentration, that might explain the high predisposition of the WHWT breed for CIPF. Therefore, VEGF was determined by ELISA in the serum of 14 WHWT with CIPF, 18 healthy WHWT, and 85 healthy dogs of other breeds, including : 14 Scottish terrier (ST), 16 Jack Russell terrier (JRT), 15 Maltese, 14 King Charles Spaniel (KCS), 12 Labrador Retriever (LR) and 14 Malinois Belgian Shepherd. Eight CIPF WHWT (57%) have serum VEGF concentrations above the kit detection limit (39.1 pg/ml) compared to 1 WHWT (0.05%) in the group of healthy dogs (P=0.001). Concerning inter-breed differences in healthy dogs, most values obtained were below the kit detection limit with only 3 KCS (21%), 3 JRT (19%), 3 LR (25%) and 1 ST (7%) having VEGF serum levels above 39.1 pg/ml (P=0.147). Results of the present study show that (1) VEGF might be an interesting blood biomarker for CIPF; (2) canine VEGF Quantikine Elisa kit is not appropriate for measurement of serum VEGF levels in healthy canine populations