DNA in situ Hybridizations for VEGFA Gene Locus (6p12) in Human Tumor Tissue

Abstract

Over the last decades numerous regulators of angiogenesis have been identified and characterized. Among the others the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGFA) appears undoubtedly important in several pathophysiological processes. Moreover, VEGFA represents one of the most attractive targets of anticancer therapy, given its major role in the growth and development of different tumor types. Here we describe a method to detect the copy number variation (CNV) status of the VEGFA gene by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). FISH analysis is a reliable method for investigating VEGFA amplification or increased gene copy number and may represent an alternative method to immunohistochemical analysis for investigating the deregulation of VEGFA expression levels.