Recurrent depressive disorder (rDD) is a multifactorial disease. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the factors that have been suggested to play a role in the etiology and/or development of this disease. Limited information related to the role of VEGFA gene polymorphism in depressive disorder is available. The aim of the study was to analyze the association between VEGFA gene polymorphisms (+405G/C; rs2010963, +936C/T; rs 3025039), VEGFA gene expression, and its serum protein levels in rDD in the Caucasian population. In the current study, 268 patients and 200 healthy controls of the Caucasian origin were involved. Genotyping and gene expression were performed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for detection of circulating serum VEGF levels. The distribution of VEGFA polymorphism +405G/C differed significantly between rDD patients and healthy subjects. The results of this study indicated that the C allele and CC genotype of VEGFA are risk factors for rDD. Haplotypes CC and TG are the important factors for depression development. Further, VEGFA mRNA expression and VEGF levels were higher in rDD patients than in controls. The VEGFA gene polymorphism may serve as a prognostic factor for rDD development. Our study showed higher levels of both VEGFA mRNA in the peripheral blood cells and serum VEGF in patients diagnosed with rDD than in healthy controls. The obtained results suggest VEGF and the gene encoding the molecule play a role in the etiology of the disease and should be further investigated.
Keywords: ACTB; Beta-2-microglobulin gene; CI; CIDI; COX-2; Caucasian population; Composite International Diagnostic Interview; ELISA; GADPH; Glyceraldehyde-3- phosphate dehydrogenase gene; HDRS; Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; Haplotypes; LD; M2B; MPO; ORdis; PCR-RFLP; Peripheral blood; RPL1(3)A; Recurrent depressive disorder; Ribosomal protein L13a gene; SD; TMB; VEGF; VEGF levels inflammation; VEGFA; VEGFA gene; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor gene; Vascular endothelial growth factor; WHO; World Health Organization; beta actin gene; confidence interval; cycloooxygenase-2; disease odds ratio; enzyme – linked immunosorbent assay; iNOS; inducible nitric oxide synthase; linkage disequilibrium; myeloperoxidase; polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism; qRT-PCR; quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction; rDD; recurrent depressive disorder; standard deviations; tetramethylbenzidine.
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