Role of VEGF in the growth and metastasis of a murine bladder carcinoma

Bladder transitional cell carcinoma is the most common form of carcinoma in the urinary system. Although overexpression of VEGF has been identified in tissue, serum,and urine of patients with bladder cancer, the role of VEGF in transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder has not been clearly elucidated. Here, we dissected the effect of VEGF during bladder tumor growth and progression by modifying a BBN (N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine) induced mouse bladder transitional cell carcinoma cell line BTT-T739 by stable transfection of antisense VEGF121 cDNA. The transfection resulted in-more than 80% reduction in VEGF production. The growth of the transduced tumor cells in vitro was not affected, however, these cells formed small or no tumors in vivo. Even in the tumors formed, there were minimal vascularization, extensive necrosis and longer latency compared to those formed by parental cells. The permeability of tumor vasrulatuce and metastatic tumor growth were also significantly suppressed in antisense VEGF cDNA transfected cells. In addition, the transfer of anti-angiogenic gene in a rumbination of sFlk-I and ExTek with electroporation can suppress the tumor growth efficiently. Taken together,these results demonstrated that VEGF plays an important role in bladder tumor angiogenesis and angiogenesis plays an important role in bladder tumor growth and metastasis.     

Embryonic chick muscle produces an FGF-like activity

Normal and pathological formation of blood vessels is of considerable interest both in terms of basic scientific processes and clinical applications. Angiogenic events in the adult are likely to represent persistence of developmental mechanisms, and embryos are therefore a suitable experimental model for these processes. Among embryonic tissues, muscle is particularly appropriate for investigation, since it is highly vascularised from early stages. There are a number of competing explanations of how this process is controlled. Bioassays offer advantages over conventional molecular localisation techniques, in that they reveal the presence of active processed forms of the molecules under study, rather than non-processed forms, or non-translated meassages. Using these techniques, we report here that embryonic chick muscle, taken from the stages at which blood vessels are forming, produces an angiogenic activity on the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM), and transforms NR6 cells in soft agar. Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is shown to be angiogenic on the CAM in the same way, and also transforms NR6 cells (NR6 cells lack functional epidermal growth factor/transforming growth factor-a receptors, and are believed to respond only to bFGF in this way). Anti-bFGF removes the transforming activity of the embryonic muscle. We conclude that this represents evidence that embryonic chick muscle is producing an FGF-like molecule which is capable of acting as an angiogenic agent at the appropriate times in development.     

黄酮类化合物抑制肿瘤新血管形成研究

黄酮类化合物是许多天然药物的活性成分,多种黄酮类化合物具有良好的体内外抗肿瘤活性,近年来,越来越多的研究表明黄酮类化合物可通过多种机制抑制新血管形成,从而抑制肿瘤细胞的生长.就黄酮类化合物对肿瘤新血管形成的抑制作用展开综述.     

Ⅳ型胶原酶及其抑制剂在抗肿瘤研究中的进展

作为基质金属蛋白酶家族成员的Ⅳ型胶原酶,除参与多种正常的生理功能外,还在肿瘤的发生发展过程中发挥着重要作用,与肿瘤的血管生成,肿瘤的侵袭和转移密切关联.研究发现有一些Ⅳ型胶原酶抑制剂能够通过抑制其酶活性,从而减缓肿瘤发展,这些抑制剂包括天然物质、人工合成物质及抗体类物质.目前,人们正利用抗体抑制剂进行抗肿瘤作用的研究,研发新型抗癌药物.     

血管生成抑制素对体外培养的血管内皮细胞增殖与凋亡的影响

为研究血管生成抑制素对体外培养的血管内皮细胞生长的影响,采用MTT法观察细胞的增殖情况,利用Hoest染色和流式细胞仪检测细胞凋亡。结果发现血管生成抑制素能够抑制血管内皮细胞的增殖,其IC50为1.19 mg/L,并干扰内皮细胞的周期,出现G0/G1期阻滞。