Fresh data on angiogenesis are presented in the report “Dual-color imaging of angiogenesis and its inhibition in bone and soft tissue sarcoma. Angiogenesis is a critical step in tumor growth, progression, and metastasis. Soft tissue and bone sarcoma are resistant to most therapeutic approaches,” scientists writing in the Journal of Surgical Research report.
“Angiogenesis of these tumors may be an effective target. We hypothesized that we could inhibit tumor growth by targeting angiogenesis in a mouse model of sarcoma. We demonstrate in this report, using powerful color-coded fluorescent imageable tumor-host models, the onset of angiogenesis of these sarcomas and its inhibition. Transgenic mice were used as the host in which green fluorescent protein (GFP) is driven by a regulatory element of the stem cell marker nestin (ND-GFP). Nascent blood vessels express ND-GFP in this model. We visualized, by dual-color fluorescence imaging, angiogenesis of sarcoma formed by the HT-1080 human fibrosarcoma cell line expressing red fluorescent protein (RFP) in the ND-GFP mice. Tumor cells were injected into either the muscle or the bone. Nestin was highly expressed in proliferating endothelial cells and nascent blood vessels in the growing tumors, including the surrounding tissues. Immunohistochemical staining showed that CD31 colocalized in ND-GFP-expressing nascent blood vessels. The density of nascent blood vessels in the tumor was readily quantitated. The mice were given daily i.p. injections of 5 mg/kg of doxorubicin after implantation of tumor cells. Doxorubicin significantly decreased the mean nascent blood vessel density in the tumors as well as decreased tumor volume. The dual-color model of the ND-GFP nude mouse and RFP sarcoma cells is useful for the visualization and quantitation of bone and soft tissue tumor angiogenesis and evaluation of angiogenic inhibitors for such tumors,” wrote K. Hayashi and colleagues, University of California, Department of Surgery.

The researchers concluded: “These data suggest targeting angiogenesis of sarcomas as a promising clinical approach.”

Hayashi and colleagues published their study in the Journal of Surgical Research (Dual-color imaging of angiogenesis and its inhibition in bone and soft tissue sarcoma. Journal of Surgical Research, 2007;140(2):165-70).

Additional information can be obtained by contacting K. Hayashi, University of California San Diego, Dept. of Surgery, San Diego, California USA.

The publisher of the Journal of Surgical Research can be contacted at: Academic Press Inc. Elsevier Science, 525 B St., Ste. 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA.