• vascular endothelial growth factor
• congestive heart failure
• angiogenesis

• BNP, brain natriuretic peptide
• CHF, congestive heart failure, LVEF, left ventricular ejection fraction
• VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor

Growth factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases by regulating cellular proliferation, migration, differentiation, and apoptosis. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent mitogen for endothelial cells, and has been reported to promote collateral formation in ischaemic cardiac muscle and tissue repair after wounding.¹ In animal models, transfer of the VEGF gene into ischaemic limbs induces angiogenesis and improves tissue perfusion.² Recently, Baumgartner and colleagues³ demonstrated that intramuscular injection of naked plasmid DNA encoding VEGF improved limb ischaemia by promoting angiogenesis in patients with critical peripheral arterial disease. Pearlman and colleagues¹ demonstrated that direct infusion of VEGF improved global left ventricular ejection fraction and regional wall motion after acute myocardial infarction in an animal model. VEGF also induces endothelium dependent relaxation in isolated canine coronary arteries and decreases arterial pressure in rats in vivo. We previously reported that elevation of VEGF concentrations in patients with acute myocardial infarction contributed to the improvement of left ventricular function.⁴ In the present study, we measured circulating VEGF concentrations …