title: Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in melanocytic nevi.
abstract: Melanocytic nevi represent a benign neoplastic proliferation of melanocytes. The level of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in these proliferations is low in most cases; whereas an increased expression of this factor may be an indicator of pre-neoplastic changes in melanocyte lesions. We performed a semi-quantitative assessment of the level of vascular endothelial growth factor expression (score 0 to 3) on samples taken from 34 patients with benign melanocyte alterations of the skin. Melanocytic nevi showed an expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in 79.41% of the cases. The low level of expression (score 1) was seen in 70.59% cases. The results showed no statistically significant difference in the presence and level of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in relation to the following morphological parameters: histological type, a defect in the surface, density of inflammation infiltrate, mitotic index, growth phase and cell type.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Banjaluka. vesnag73@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Vesna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gajanin
authors.forename: Zdenka
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Krivokuća
authors.forename: Radoslav
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gajanin
authors.forename: Zoran
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Vujković
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sladojević
authors.forename: Bogdan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zrnić
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009508:Nevus, Pigmented / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A