Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 Regulates Endothelial Cell Sensitivity to Sunitinib
Oncogene (2011) 30, 1183–1193 & 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved 0950-9232/11 www.nature.com/onc ORIGINAL ARTICLE Fibroblast growth factor 2 regulates endothelial cell sensitivity to sunitinib JC Welti1, M Gourlaouen1, T Powles2, SC Kudahetti2, P Wilson3, DM Berney2 and AR Reynolds1 1Tumour Angiogenesis Group, The Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK; 2Centre for Molecular Oncology, Queen Mary University of London, Barts & The London School Of Medicine & Dentistry, Institute of Cancer, John Vane Science Centre, Charterhouse Square, London, UK and 3Department of Medical Oncology, West Smithfield, London, UK The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor variety of human tumours (Ellis and Hicklin, 2008). tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib has been approved for VEGF-A drives angiogenesis by signalling through two first-line treatment of patients with metastatic renal cognate receptors on local endothelial cells, VEGFR1 cancer and is currently being trialled in other cancers. and VEGFR2 (Ferrara et al., 2003; Olsson et al., 2006). However, the effectiveness of this anti-angiogenic agent Binding of VEGF-A to VEGFR2 activates key intra- is limited by the presence of innate and acquired drug cellular signalling molecules including ERK1/2 and resistance. By screening a panel of candidate growth PLCg. Pathways such as these coordinate the biological factors we identified fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) processes necessary for VEGF to induce the formation as a potent regulator of endothelial cell sensitivity to of new vessels (Olsson et al., 2006). sunitinib. We show that FGF2 supports endothelial Numerous inhibitors of the VEGF signalling axis proliferation and de novo tubule formation in the presence have been developed, including the VEGF-neutralising of sunitinib and that FGF2 can suppress sunitinib-induced antibody, bevacizumab, and VEGF receptor tyrosine retraction of tubules.
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