†These authors contributed equally.
Academic Editor: Graham Pawelec
Background and objectives: Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) is
an essential regulator of vascular biology. In addition to the well-established
role in angiogenesis, circulating VEGF levels were found elevated in severely
anemic patients, pointing out that anemia might affect the progression of
angiogenesis in malignant and benign diseases through the alteration of VEGF
levels. Ten single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in VEGFA and other
loci were shown to explain more than 50% of its circulating levels. This study
investigated the association of those ten VEGF-related SNPs with serum iron
levels in a general Lebanese population free of chronic diseases (N = 460).
Result: We found that the rs10738760 and the body mass index (BMI) were
associated with decreased Iron levels (p = 0.002, and p