Determination of age-related changes in human vascular endothelial growth factor in the serum and urine of healthy subjects.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an important regulator of endothelial cells and a key promoter of angiogenesis in physiological and pathophysiological conditions. A large number of studies dealing with body fluid measurement of VEGF for diagnostic and therapeutic monitoring have been reported. Neither the age-related profile of serum and urine VEGF levels nor the correlation between serum and urinary VEGF levels has been sufficiently investigated. In the present study, we determined the VEGF levels of the serum and urine of healthy Japanese subjects using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The serum VEGF level of children (0-14 years old) was significantly higher than that of adults (over 15 years old) (p < 0.05). On the other hand, there was no significant difference between the urine VEGF levels of children and adults. Thus, it is recommended that when the serum VEGF levels of patients are evaluated, they should be compared with those of age-matched controls. The VEGF level of the serum was not statistically correlated with that of the urine (p = 0.800). Fundamental VEGF values for body fluids of healthy subjects are necessary for the rigorous assessment of health and illness.

Urinary evaluation of the balance between soluble interferon-gamma receptor (IFN-gammaR1) and interleukin-4 receptor (IL-4Ralpha).

To elucidate the usefulness of the simultaneous analysis of multiple kinds of soluble cytokine receptors in urine specimens, we determined the levels of both the soluble interferon-gamma receptor alpha chain (sIFN-gammaR1, Th1-type cytokine receptor) and the soluble interleukin 4-receptor alpha chain (sIL-4Ralpha, Th2-type cytokine receptor) in the urine of healthy subjects as reference values and preliminarily applied this method to evaluate patients with diarrhea positive (D+) hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) as the diagnostic parameters. The urinary sIFN-gammaR levels of children were significantly lower than those of adults (p < 0.01, n = 107). On the other hand, there was no significant difference between the urine sIL-4R levels of adults and children. Statistical correlation between sIFN-gammaR and sIL-4R values was not observed (p = 0.705). On the day of onset of HUS, the urine sIFN-gammaR levels of the patients (n = 6) with HUS were higher than those of the healthy control group (n = 67) (p < 0.01); however, there was no significant difference in the sIL-4R levels between both groups. The urine evaluation of the balance between the soluble cytokine receptors might be informative for the immune states of HUS patients.

Age-dependent decrease in serum soluble interferon-gamma receptor (sIFN-gammaR) in healthy Japanese individuals; population study of serum sIFN-gammaR level in Japanese.

We planned to investigate the clinical significance of serum soluble interferon-gamma receptor (sIFN-gammaR) level in pediatric patients. The diagnostic application of the measurement of serum sIFN-gammaR level depends critically on the control value. However, there is no information of the control value of serum sIFN-gammaR for children. In the present study, we determined the serum sIFN-gammaR level of healthy Japanese children using an ELISA. The serum sIFN-gammaR level of children (0-14 years old) was significantly higher than that of adults (over 15 years old) (p < 0.01, n = 104). Thus, it is recommended that, when the serum sIFN-gammaR level of patients is evaluated, it should be compared against age-matched controls. We also preliminarily applied this assay as a diagnostic parameter for the patients with diarrhea positive (D+) hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).