Expression of basic fibroblast growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor in primary and metastatic melanoma from the same patients

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are both recognized as stimulators of migration and angiogenesis during the progression of melanoma. However, the timepoints during tumour progression at which the expression of these angiogenic factors is most essential is still controversial. Using immunohistochemical analyses, melanoma cells were found to express bFGF in 18 out of 19 primary tumours and in 13 out of 20 metastases. Eleven of the 19 primary tumours and 15 of the 20 metastases were found to contain VEGF-positive melanoma cells; five of the 19 patients showed no VEGF-expressing melanoma cells at all. This indicates that VEGF expression may be a later event in the progression of melanoma than bFGF expression. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analyses of the melanoma cell lines showed that all cell lines were positive for both bFGF and VEGF mRNA. CD31-positive endothelial cells were primarily seen in the metastases (17 out of 20). Only four of the primary tumours contained CD31-positive cells, but these tumours expressed bFGF as well as VEGF, indicating that both angiogenic factors may be important for the formation of vessels in tumours.