Whole Blood Expression of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Family Relates to Cognitive Performance

The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family is involved in angiogenic signaling and has been implicated in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Previous work from our team has found that higher transcript levels of VEGFB, PGF, FLT1, and FLT4 in the brain relate to worse cognitive performance and higher levels of AD neuropathology. This study explored whether comparable associations are observed when measuring mRNA in whole blood.