Low magnification confocal microscopy of tumor angiogenesis.

Blood vessels are critical to normal mammalian development, tissue repair, and growth and treatment of cancer. Mouse research models enable mechanistic studies of blood vessels. We detail how to perfuse mice with fluorescent tomato lectin or the lipophilic fluorophore DiI.

Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 protects endothelial cells from FasL-mediated apoptosis.

Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) paradoxically enhances tumor progression and angiogenesis; however, the mechanism supporting this role is not known. Here we provide evidence that PAI-1 is essential to protect endothelial cells (ECs) from FasL-mediated apoptosis. In the absence of host-derived PAI-1, human neuroblastoma cells implanted in PAI-1-deficient mice form smaller and poorly vascularized tumors containing an increased number of apoptotic ECs.

A non-invasive, in vivo technique for monitoring vascular status of glioblastoma during angiogenesis.

The growth of solid tumors dependent on the process of angiogenesis in which growth factors secreted by tumor and stromal cells promote endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and maturation. This process generates a tumor-specific vascular supply and enables small or dormant tumors to grow rapidly with exponential increases in tumor volume. Determination of tumor oxygenation at the microvascular level will provide important insight into tumor growth, angiogenesis, necrosis, and therapeutic response, and will facilitate to develop protocols for studying tumor behavior.

A noninvasive multimodal technique to monitor brain tumor vascularization.

Determination of tumor oxygenation at the microvascular level will provide important insight into tumor growth, angiogenesis, necrosis and therapeutic response and will facilitate to develop protocols for studying tumor behavior. The non-ionizing near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique has the potential to differentiate lesion and hemoglobin dynamics; however, it has a limited spatial resolution. On the other hand, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has achieved high spatial resolution with excellent tissue discrimination but is more susceptible to limited ability to monitor the hemoglobin dynamics.

Effect of the angiogenesis inhibitor Cilengitide (EMD 121974) on glioblastoma growth in nude mice.

Objective: To determine the effect of the angiogenesis inhibitor Cilengitide (EMD 121974) on glioblastoma growth and associated angiogenesis in the brains of nude mice.

Methods: Human glioblastoma cells (10 U87MG cells) in 1 mul of medium were stereotactically injected during a 20-minute period into the caudate/putamen of nude mice. The mice were intraperitoneally treated daily with Cilengitide or solvent (control) beginning 5 days after tumor injection.