Abstract

Aim: With aging, there is a dramatic decrease in Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF). The effects of plasma therapy applied to aged tissues have attracted attention in recent years, as young plasma is rich in rejuvenating factors that decrease in aged mice and support organ regeneration and hormone secretion. In the presented study, young plasma treatment was applied to aged rats and its effects on cellular proliferation and VEGF levels in the duodenum were evaluated.
Material and Methods: For this purpose, aged male Sprague Dawley rats (24months, n=15) were treated with pooled plasma (0.5ml/day, intravenously for 30d) collected from young (5weeks, n=51) rats. Aged rats formed the control group while aged rats that received young plasma treatment were labelled as the experimental group. At the end of the experiment, the duodenums of the groups were collected and cell proliferation index and proliferation intensity were evaluated with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and expressions of VEGF which plays a role in both the digestive system and cardiovascular system were investigated.
Results: VEGF expression intensity determined by immunohistochemical method showed an increase in experimental group (2.45±0.18) compared to control group (1.70±0.15) (p

Key words: Duodenum, cell proliferation, vascular endothelial growth factor