Replies to post #2631 on Entremed (ENMD)

[docaaron1]

Cycle dude, thanks for the article. It appears to tie in with the blood vessel needing HIF to grow in low oxygen article.


From post: http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=6948911

…But studies in mice have shown that while over-expression of VEGF induces the growth of blood vessels, the capillaries are leaky, the tissues are inflamed and swollen, and the blood vessels have an abnormal "corkscrew-like" shape.
In the current study, researchers genetically engineered mice to overexpress the HIF-1 gene in skin cells. In response, the number of capillaries in the mice's skin increased by nearly 70 percent. More importantly, the blood vessels did not leak, cause swelling or inflammation…


From post: http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=6571879

…However, these latest findings show that the blood vessels themselves are actively responding to oxygen levels, not just to the signals sent by the tumor. According to the researchers, developing drugs that interfere with the blood vessels' response to low oxygen may be a potent anti-tumor strategy.
“We show that the blood vessels' response to lack of oxygen is just as important as the response of cancer cells to lack of oxygen,” said Randall Johnson, a professor of biology at UCSD who headed the research team. “We identified a gene that turns on in the cells lining blood vessels when they are not getting enough oxygen and showed that without this gene the blood vessels cannot grow to nourish the developing tumor. Drugs that interfere with this gene, or another gene involved in the blood vessels' response, should block tumor growth.”
The researchers showed that the gene, HIF-1alpha, is normally turned off in endothelial cells-the cells lining blood vessels. But when the endothelial cells are exposed to low oxygen conditions, such as those generated when a tumor is using up the oxygen supply, the gene becomes activated. By switching on other genes, HIF-1alpha causes the endothelial cells to proliferate and migrate…