Shabbou Bahramian - Golestan Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
Mohammad Shafiee - Golestan Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran.Department of Medical Genetics,Faculty of Advaced Medical Technologies, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
Reza Sahebi - Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Basic Health Sciences Institute, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences , Shahrekord, Iran- Genetic department, Babol University of Medical Science, Ganj afrooz road, Babol, Ir
Zahra roohinejad

Background: Esophageal cancer is the 8th most important cancer in the world. VEGF Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor, VEGF, protein expression is potentiated in response to the hypoxic state. VEGF is upregulated in many known tumors and its expression is correlated with tumor stage and progression. VEGF gene is mutated in the different type of esophageal cancers. This growth factor induces proliferation and migration of vascular endothelial cells, and is essential for both physiological and pathological angiogenesis. The present study examined the expression pattern of VEGF in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).Method: Eighty tumor tissues and margin normal tissues of ESCC cancer were collected patients who underwent surgery from the Tumor Bank of Cancer Institute, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran. The gene expression level of VEGF was evaluated using quantitative RT-PCR method. PCR products were normalized to GAPDH as an internal control. All experiments were performed with two replicates. The fold-change expression was analysed by t-test. In which (P ≤ 0.05).Results: The quantitative Real-Time RT-PCR results revealed a significant upregulation of VEGF (P-value=0.0113) in tumor samples of ESCC, compared to their matched non-tumor tissues obtained from the margin of the same tumors. Moreover, our data demonstrated a meaningful upregulation of VEGF in high-grade tumor samples, in comparison to the low-grade ones (P-value=0.002).Conclusion: The elevated level of VEGF expression in tuomr associated grade may be an interesting issue for molecular targeting in esophageal cancer therapy.

Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ESCC), VEGF, Tumor grade.