Angiogenic/Angiostatic Mediators in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disease that is characterized by fibrosis of the skin and internal organs. One of the earliest pathologic changes in patients with SSc is damage to the blood vessels. Many abnormalities have been found in the inner layer of the blood vessel, the enothelial tissue. It is known that there are mediators in the blood and tissues of the body that affect the endothelial tissue. These are called angiogenic (promote blood vessel formation) and angiostatic (inhibit blood vessel formation) mediators. Many of these mediators have been examined in the peripheral blood of patients with SSc, but fewer of these mediators have been examined at the site of action, in the tissue near the microvasculature. We hypothesize that there are differences in the levels of angiogenic/angiostatic mediators between healthy subjects and subjects with SSc. In addition, we propose that there are differences at skin sites that have varying levels of involvement with SSc of these angiogenic/angiostatic factors in subjects with SSc.