Expression and significance of vascular endothelial growth factor in placenta from pregnancy complicated with pre-eclampsia

Objective: To study the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) in placenta from normal pregnancy and pregnancy complicated with pre-eclampsia and the significance of VEGF on the etiology of pre-eclampsia.Methods:Use the immunohistochemistry to determine the intensity of VEGF staining in placenta from 18 cases of normal pregnancy and 36 cases of pregnancies complicated with mild,severe group pre-eclampsia.Results:Immunolocalization of VEGF in all cases was observed mainly in syncytiotrophoblast.Intensity of VEGF immnostaining in syncytiotrophoblast was significantly reduced in the severe pre-eclampsia group(P0.05= compared with both the mild pre-eclampsia group and the normal group,while there was no qualitative differences between the mild pre-eclampsia group and the normal group(P0.05).Conclusion:These results suggest that VEGF is secreted mainly by syncytiotrophoblast in human placenta and the reduced VEGF may be responsible,at least in part,for the impaired vascular development in pre-eclampsia.