| Most malignant solid tumors are generally considered as angiogenesis dependent diseases. A number of studies have suggested that primary tumor growth, invasiveness and metastasis require neovascularisation. The term angiogenesis was first proposed by Dr. Folkman (Folkman, 1971) to define the phenomenon leading to neovascularisation, that is, the formation of new blood vessels from the pre-existing vascular network. Angiogenesis is a complex process including activation, proliferation, and migration of endothelial cells, disruption of vascular basement membranes, formation of vascular tubes and networks. Tumor angiogenesis involves in a range of biological processes regulated by the balance between positive and negative mediators of angiogenesis.Platelet factor 4 (PF4) has been known to be an angiostatic factor. PF4 belongs to the CXC chemokines sub-family of cytokines. PF4 is a potent inhibitor of endothelial cell proliferation in vitro and anti-angiogenesis in vivo. However; structure-function relationships of PF4 antigangiogenesis remain poorly understood, because no cell surface receptor has been yet identified. The present study was designed to determine the anti-tumor angiogenic effect of PF4 and a N-truncated peptide (p17-70) using virally mediated gene transfer to elucidate the onset between function and structure.
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