Ede. Liaudetcoopman et al., IN-VIVO INHIBITION OF ANGIOGENESIS AND INDUCTION OF APOPTOSIS BY RETINOIC ACID IN SQUAMOUS-CELL CARCINOMA, Clinical cancer research, 3(2), 1997, pp. 179-184
Retinoids inhibit the growth and reverse aberrant differentiation of s
quamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cells in vitro. To investigate the potent
ial mechanisms of antitumor activity of retinoids in vivo, we used the
cervical SCC cell line ME-180 as a s.c. tumor xenograft in athymic nu
de mice, After s.c. injection, tumor cells were allowed to form visibl
e tumors and antitumor activity of all-trans-retinoic acid (tRA) was s
tudied. tRA was administered daily for a 1-week or a 2-week period at
60 mg/kg/day. Tumor specimens were then analyzed using immunohistochem
ical staining for the number of blood vessels and apoptotic cells and
for proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression, Furthermore, we stu
died the effect of the tRA treatment on the expression of a binding pr
otein for fibroblast growth factors (BP; Gen-Bank accession no. M60047
) that is a candidate angiogenesis modulator in SCC (F. Czubayko et al
., J. Biol. Chem., 269: 28243-28248, 1994). We found that in vivo tRA
treatment reduces BP expression in SCC xenografts, inhibits their angi
ogenesis, induces apoptosis of the tumor cells, and leads to a decreas
e of the tumor growth rate, We speculate that the tRA down-regulation
of BP is responsible for the reduction of angiogenesis.