Tumor growth and metastasis require new blood ves-sel growth, a process called angiogenesis. There are many factors involved in the nor-mal growth and stabilization of new blood vessels. One of these, sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor 1 (S1P1), is required during embryonic development to stabilize new blood vessels. Timothy Hla and colleagues, from the University of Connecticut Health Science Center, inves-tigated the importance of S1P1 in angiogenesis in tumors. The authors implanted mice with Lewis lung carcinoma cells and examined tissue sections for S1P1 expression. S1P1 expression was found in the blood vessels only in the areas around the implanted tumor. The researchers then developed an RNA interference technique, a method that specifically blocks S1P1 expression. They showed that using RNA interference they successfully blocked S1P1 expression in cell culture and that when they injec-tion of the S1P1-specific interfering RNA into tumors in mice, these also showed repressed S1P1 expres-sion. In conjunction with loss of S1P1 expression, new blood vessel stabilization and growth were compromised and tumor growth suppressed in vivo. This study indicates both that S1P1 is vital for blood vessel growth in tumors and that RNA interference technology may be of great use in anticancer therapies.

TITLE: Requirement for sphingosine 1phosphate receptor-1 in tumor angiogenesis demonstrated by in vivo RNA interference

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Timothy Hla
University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT 06030, USA
Phone: (860) 679-4128; Fax: (860) 679-1201; E-mail: hla@nso2.uchc.edu

View the PDF of this article at: http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/full/114/8/1082
'"/>

Contact: Laurie Goodman
press_releases@the-jci.org
212-342-4159
Journal of Clinical Investigation
15-Oct-2004

Page: 1
Related biology news :

1. Better together: Bacterial endosymbionts are essential for the reproduction of a fungus
2. Life cycle assessment essential to nanotech commercial development
3. Adaptation to global climate change is an essential response to a warming planet
4. Proteins effects essential for kidney-to-bladder urine transfer
5. Tβ4 is essential for coronary vessel development report
6. Fatty acids and caveolin-1 are essential in liver regeneration
7. IL-21 receptor plays an essential role in the Th2 immune response
8. LSUHSC research finds evidence of RNA in structures essential to cell division
9. MBL scientists find evidence of RNA in organelle essential to cell division
10. New mechanism for essential genome-wide gene silencing identified
11. Emory scientists discover unique binding method for essential cellular protein ubiquitin