Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in melanocytic nevi.

Melanocytic nevi represent a benign neoplastic proliferation of melanocytes. The level of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in these proliferations is low in most cases; whereas an increased expression of this factor may be an indicator of pre-neoplastic changes in melanocyte lesions. We performed a semi-quantitative assessment of the level of vascular endothelial growth factor expression (score 0 to 3) on samples taken from 34 patients with benign melanocyte alterations of the skin. Melanocytic nevi showed an expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in 79.41% of the cases. The low level of expression (score 1) was seen in 70.59% cases. The results showed no statistically significant difference in the presence and level of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in relation to the following morphological parameters: histological type, a defect in the surface, density of inflammation infiltrate, mitotic index, growth phase and cell type.