Table 2.

VEGF levels in various respiratory disorders.

Disease	VEGF levels	Reference
ALI/ARDS	Elevated plasma VEGF levels. Reduced VEGF levels in the epithelial lining fluid.	[27] [28]
Asthma	Increased VEGF levels in induced sputum. Increased VEGF levels in BAL fluid. Increased VEGF-positive cells in bronchial biopsies.	[4, 32, 33] [34] [35, 36]
COPD	Increased VEGF expression in bronchial, bronchiolar and alveolar epithelium; bronchiolar macrophages; airway and vascular smooth muscle cells of bronchiolar and alveolar regions.	[43, 48]
	Increased VEGF concentrations in induced sputum in chronic bronchitis.	[45]
	Reduced VEGF concentrations in induced sputum in emphysema.	[45]
Obstructive sleep apnea	Increased serum and plasma VEGF levels.	[25, 53-55]
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis	Plasma VEGF concentrations did not differ between patients with IPF and controls. Depressed BAL fluid VEGF concentrations.	[53] [60-62]
Tuberculosis	Increased circulating VEGF levels in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis compared to healthy controls and patients with old tuberculosis.	[67, 68]
Pleural fluid	Higher VEGF levels in pleural effusions associated with malignancies compared to benign effusions. Higher VEGF levels in empyemas compared to uncomplicated parapneumonic effusions.	[24, 81, 82, 84, 85] [24, 89]
	Higher VEGF levels in tuberculous pleural effusions compared to transudates.	[90]
Lung cancer	Increased serum VEGF levels.	[98, 99]

VEGF: vascular endothelial growth factor; ALI/ARDS: acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome; COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; IPF: idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis; BAL: bronchoalveolar lavage.