RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS OF THE 28th ECVIM-CA CONGRESS

This study was included 25 various spontaneous canine tumors. For evaluation of angiogenesis, paraffin‐embedded sections were stained with antibodies to vWF. The entire tumor section was first observed at low‐power field (x40) to select the most vascularized areas (hotspots) and then under a high‐power field (HPF) (x400) the stained microvessels were counted. The sections were divided into two groups: high microvessel counts (≥ 12 vessels / HPF) and low microvessel counts (< 12 vessels / HPF). mRNA expression levels of vWF, endoglin, VEGF, VEGFR2 and GAPDH were measured by semiquantitative RT‐PCR. Statistical analysis was performed by Mann‐Whitney U test and Chi‐squared test, with statistical significance set at P < 0.05.