Increased serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor and fibroblast growth factor 2 in drug-nave patients with schizophrenia

Abstract

Objective To investigate the possible role of vascular endothelial growth factor（VEGF） and fibroblast growth factor 2（FGF-2） in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia． Methods Fifty-four drug-nave patients with schizophrenia and 54 sex-，age-，body mass index-，and education-matched healthy controls were consecutively involved in the study．The serum levels of VEGF and FGF-2 were detected with sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, and the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale（PANSS） was used to evaluate psychopathological symptoms in patients. Two-sample t test and Pearson correlation test were used to analyze the serum levels of VEGF and FGF-2 in patients． Results （1）The serum levels of VEGF(（713±101） ng/L) and FGF-2(（325± 30） ng/L) in patients were significantly higher than that in the controls (（614±71） ng/L and（272± 34） ng/L，t=5.84,8.57，both P＜0.05).（2） In patients, there were no significant differences on the serum levels of VEGF and FGF-2 between man and women, ones with smoking and without smoking, ones with a family history of mental illness and without a family history.（3）The levels of serum VEGF and FGF-2 in patients were not correlated to age, the total course of illness, body mass index, the score of PANSS positive scale, score of PANSS negative scale, score of PANSS general psychopathology scale and PANSS total score． Conclusion It suggests that the serum levels of VEGF and FGF-2 increase in drug-nave patients with schizophrenia． Key words: Schizophrenia; Vascular endothelial growth factor A; Fibroblast growth factor 2