Mounting evidence points to the significance of neurovascular-related dysfunction in veterans with blast-related mTBI, which is also associated with reduced [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake. The goal of this study was to determine whether plasma VEGF-A is altered in veterans with blast-related mTBI and address whether VEGF-A levels correlate with FDG uptake in the cerebellum, a brain region that is vulnerable to blast-related injury 72 veterans with blast-related mTBI (mTBI) and 24 deployed control (DC) veterans with no lifetime history of TBI were studied. Plasma VEGF-A was significantly elevated in mTBIs compared to DCs. Plasma VEGF-A levels in mTBIs were significantly negatively correlated with FDG uptake in cerebellum. In addition, performance on a Stroop color/word interference task was inversely correlated with plasma VEGF-A levels in blast mTBI veterans. Finally, we observed aberrant perivascular VEGF-A immunoreactivity in postmortem cerebellar tissue and not cortical or hippocampal tissues from blast mTBI veterans. These findings add to the limited number of plasma proteins that are chronically elevated in veterans with a history of blast exposure associated with mTBI. It is likely the elevated VEGF-A levels are from peripheral sources. Nonetheless, increasing plasma VEGF-A concentrations correlated with chronically decreased cerebellar glucose metabolism and poorer performance on tasks involving cognitive inhibition and set shifting. These results strengthen an emerging view that cognitive complaints and functional brain deficits caused by blast exposure are associated with chronic blood-brain barrier injury and prolonged recovery in affected regions.

中文翻译：

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血浆血管内皮生长因子-A (VEGF-A) 的慢性升高与爆炸暴露史有关

越来越多的证据表明神经血管相关功能障碍在患有爆炸相关 mTBI 的退伍军人中的重要性，这也与 [18F]-氟脱氧葡萄糖 (FDG) 摄取减少有关。本研究的目的是确定血浆 VEGF-A 在患有爆炸相关 mTBI 的退伍军人中是否发生改变，并解决 VEGF-A 水平是否与小脑中 FDG 摄取相关，小脑是一个易受爆炸相关伤害的大脑区域 72 名退伍军人研究了与爆炸相关的 mTBI (mTBI) 和 24 名没有 TBI 终生病史的部署控制 (DC) 退伍军人。与 DC 相比，mTBI 中的血浆 VEGF-A 显着升高。mTBI 中的血浆 VEGF-A 水平与小脑中 FDG 摄取显着负相关。此外，在 Stroop 颜色/文字干扰任务上的表现与 blast mTBI 退伍军人的血浆 VEGF-A 水平呈负相关。最后，我们在死后小脑组织中观察到异常的血管周围 VEGF-A 免疫反应性，而不是来自 blast mTBI 退伍军人的皮质或海马组织。这些发现增加了有限数量的血浆蛋白，这些血浆蛋白在有与 mTBI 相关爆炸暴露史的退伍军人中长期升高。升高的 VEGF-A 水平很可能来自外周来源。尽管如此，增加的血浆 VEGF-A 浓度与长期降低的小脑葡萄糖代谢以及涉及认知抑制和定型转移的任务的较差表现相关。