Background: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in diabetic vascular complications, and its expression is affected directly or indirectly by hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) in tumors and certain normal cell lines. However, little is known about the role of HIF-1α/ IGF-I in VEGF expression in patients with diabetic vascular complications. The aim of this study was to elucidate the associations between HIF-1α, IGF-I, and VEGF in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with or without vascular complications.
Methods: Sixty patients with T2DM, with(A), and without vascular disease (B) and 26 controls were enrolled. Clinical parameters, HIF-1α, IGF-I and VEGF were assessed in the study and associations among them were analyzed by Spearman rank correlation.
Results: Serum levels of VEGF, HIF-1α and IGF-I were significantly higher in the diabetic patients than in the controls. Positive correlations existed between VEGF and HIF-1α and between HIF-1α and IL-6 in both groups A and B and in the control group.
Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that HIF-1α and IL-6 could regulate VEGF expression, and that higher levels of HIF-1α, IL-6, and VEGF may contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic micro-angiopathy.