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Blood, 9 April 2009, Vol. 113, No. 15, pp. 3631-3639. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on February 13, 2009; DOI 10.1182/blood-2008-07-170381.
Submitted July 25, 2008
Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan * Corresponding author; email: sebihara{at}idac.tohoku.ac.jp.
Delta-like 4 (DLL4) is one of the Notch ligands and plays an important role in vascular development. DLL4 blockade inhibits tumor growth by promoting non-productive angiogenesis, which is characterized by an increase in vascular density and decrease in tissue perfusion. However, a detailed mechanism remains unclear. In this study, newly developed neutralizing antibodies against mouse and human DLL4 were used to investigated the possible involvement of VEGF-DLL4-ephrinB2 cascade in non-productive angiogenesis caused by DLL4 blockade in vivo and in vitro. DLL4 blockade and soluble ephrinB2 treatment suppressed tumor growth and induced non-productive angiogenesis. DLL4 was expressed in subcutaneous tumors, and DLL4 blockade suppressed ephrinB2 expression in the tumors. DLL4 blockade significantly promoted HUVECs proliferation in vitro, and the effect was additive to that of VEGF. Both DLL4 blockade and VEGF significantly increased cord length and branch points in a tubular formation assay. Expression of ephrinB2 in HUVECs was enhanced by VEGF alone, and the enhancement was inhibited by DLL4 blockade. Moreover, when we studied the effect of ephrinB2 RNA interference on HUVECs tubular formation, knockdown of ephrinB2 mimicked the effect of DLL4. These results suggest that ephrinB2 plays a crucial role in non-productive angiogenesis caused by DLL4 blockade.
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