VEGFA and acute respiratory distress syndrome: Another category of biomarkers of the exudative phase of ALI are epithelial markers, including such molecules as surfactant proteins [355], Krebs von den Lungen-6 protein [356], vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) performing both marker and prognostic functions [358,385] (Table 3).