Abstract
Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, is seen during embryonic development and tumor progression, but the mechanisms have remained unclear. Recent data indicate that tumor angiogenesis can be induced by cellular oncogenes, leading to the enhanced activity of molecules stimulating angiogenesis. However, activated oncogenes might also facilitate angiogenesis by down-regulating endogenous inhibitors of angiogenesis. We report here that enhanced expression of the N-myc oncogene in human neuroblastoma cells down-regulates three inhibitors of endothelial cell proliferation. One of them was identified by amino acid sequencing as being identical with activin A, a developmentally-regulated protein. Down-regulation involves interaction of the N-myc protein with the activin A promoter. Work is ongoing to characterize the other two endothelial cell inhibitors. We suggest that the N-myc induced down-regulation of angiogenesis inhibitors could contribute to tumor angiogenesis.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 239-248 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology |
| Volume | 476 |
| Publication status | Published - 2000 |
Bibliographical note
Hatzi, E Breit, S Zoephel, A Ashman, K Tontsch, U Ahorn, H Murphy, C Schweigerer, L Fotsis, T Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't United states Advances in experimental medicine and biology Adv Exp Med Biol. 2000;476:239-48.Keywords
- Activins Amino Acid Sequence *Angiogenesis Inhibitors Cell Division Cells, Cultured *Down-Regulation Endothelium, Vascular/cytology *Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic Glycoproteins/*genetics Humans Inhibins/*genetics Molecular Sequence Data Molecular Weight Neovascularization, Pathologic/*metabolism Neuroblastoma Oncogenes Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myc/*genetics Tumor Cells, Cultured