{"doi":"10.1159/000512282","title":"Decreased Platelet Counts and Serum Levels of VEGF-A, PDGF-BB, and BDNF in Extremely Preterm Infants Developing Severe ROP","abstract":"INTRODUCTION: Thrombocytopenia has been identified as an independent risk factor for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), although underlying mechanisms are unknown. In this study, the association of platelet count and serum platelet-derived factors with ROP was investigated. METHODS: Data for 78 infants born at gestational age (GA) <28 weeks were included. Infants were classified as having no/mild ROP or severe ROP. Serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor A, platelet-derived growth factor BB, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor were measured in serum samples collected from birth until postmenstrual age (PMA) 40 weeks. Platelet counts were obtained from samples taken for clinical indication. RESULTS: Postnatal platelet counts and serum concentrations of the 3 growth factors followed the same postnatal pattern, with lower levels in infants developing severe ROP at PMA 32 and 36 weeks (p < 0.05-0.001). With adjustment for GA, low platelet counts and low serum concentrations of all 3 factors at PMA 32 weeks were significantly associated with severe ROP. Serum concentrations of all 3 factors also strongly correlated with platelet count (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: In this article, we show that ROP, platelet counts, and specific pro-angiogenic factors correlate. These data suggest that platelet-released factors might be involved in the regulation of retinal and systemic angiogenesis after extremely preterm birth. Further investigations are needed.","journal":"Neonatology","year":2021,"id":166089,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":34,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8956,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":527422,"name":"Pia Lundgren","orcid":"0000-0002-7731-1988","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":454653,"name":"Aldina Pivodic","orcid":"0000-0002-2224-3236","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":690793,"name":"Chatarina Löfqvist","orcid":"0000-0003-4371-5164","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":527423,"name":"Anders Nilsson","orcid":"0000-0003-3631-0783","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":690794,"name":"David Ley","orcid":"0000-0002-7498-6883","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":691642,"name":"Karin Sävman","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":90501,"name":"Lois E. H. Smith","orcid":"0000-0001-7644-6410","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":290714,"name":"Ann Hellström","orcid":"0000-0002-9259-1244","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":527424,"name":"Gunnel Hellgren","orcid":"0000-0001-7287-7598","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":52,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:45:45.220559Z","pmid":"33611321","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}