The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is implicated in the progress
ion of cancers. Its expression is well correlated with tumor growth and met
astases. The availability of a rapid and sensitive method to detect the amo
unts of VEGF mRNA in biological samples of limited size, very small biopsie
s, ol samples containing relatively few cells could provide an interesting
prognostic tool for clinicians. We have developed an RT-PCR method that all
ows us to detect the VEGF mRNA from as little as 3 mug total mRNA. We have
also shown that this protocol can be generalized to all cell lines tested.
This method constitutes a very potent tool for the analysis of VEGF mRNA ex
pression in different contexts.