Abstract
This study was to investigate the effects of high intensity focused ultrasound on vascular endothelial growth factor. A B16 melanoma model was adopted in our study. Melanoma bearing mice were randomly divided into two groups: HIFU group and surgery group. While the control group was only injected with isovolumetric normal saline solution and treated as the surgery group. We detected VEGF both in tissues and sera through immunohistochemical method and ELISA respectively. Tissues were sampled pre- and at the 3rd day post-operation in HIFU group and blood samples were taken pre- and at the 1st, 3rd, and 7th day post-operation in all the groups. As a result, in the tissues, VEGF was expressed in 80% melanomas, but none was detected in the targeted area after HIFU treatment. In the sera, there was a decreasing tendency of serum-VEGF concentrations in group HIFU and surgery after operation, while that in the control group increased after operation. The levels in the HIFU group on day 1, 3, and 7 postoperatively were all lower than that in the surgery group respectively (79.16 pg/ml vs 91.59 pg/ml; 33.64 pg/ml vs 49.39 pg/ml; 30.37 pg/ml vs 46.68 pg/ml), but there wasn't any significant difference (P > 0.05). So HIFU can destroy VEGF in the targeted area and maybe have less of an effect on serum-VEGF than surgery.