Results of enzyme immunoassay of vasculoendothelial growth factor (VEGF) in blood serum in premature newborns with perinatal hypoxic damage to the central nervous system

Background. Vasculoendothelial growth factor (VEGF) is responsible for vascular remodeling, influences the formation of post-hypoxic structural changes in the newborn brain and is synergistically closely related to neurotrophic factors, being an inhibitor of apoptosis processes, which are important for lesions of the central nervous system in newborns of various types of gestational age, having suffered both acute asphyxia at birth and chronic intrauterine hypoxia. VEGF has been little studied in premature newborns, which are at high risk for the formation of intraventricular hemorrhage and periventricular leukomalacia.
Aim. To study changes in the serum concentration of VEGF, its role in the pathogenesis of severe hypoxic-ischemic lesions of the central nervous system in premature newborns of various gestational ages, as well as to determine its prognostic significance for the formation of severe structural brain lesions.
Materials and methods. We observed 120 children with a gestational age from 25 to 36 weeks. The children were divided into 4 groups according to changes to neurosonography data. Determination of protein level was carried out by enzyme immunoassay.
Results and conclusion. With the formation of ischemic and combined (intraventricular hemorrhage and periventricular leukomalacia) forms of post-hypoxic changes in the brain in newborns, by 5–7th days of life the concentration of VEGF significantly decreased compared to the test on the 1st day of life, and by the 4th week of life it decreased in 4 times in case of combined lesions. VEGF cannot be used as a marker of damage in the acute period (up to 5 days of life), since its initial levels in the blood serum do not differ significantly from those in the control group. However, a decrease in its concentration by the end of the 1st week of life makes it possible to reliably predict the formation of post-hypoxic changes in the brain. A decrease in the level of VEGF in the blood serum in premature newborns with structural changes according to neurosonography by the 4th week of life coincides with the timing of the formation of gliotic changes, which significantly affects the developmental prognosis of the examined children