Brain Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Brain Cancer, including details on symptoms, benign and malignant tumors, gliomas, treatment.

HIF1alpha induces the recruitment of bone marrow-derived vascular modulatory cells to regulate tumor angiogenesis and invasion.

Du R, Lu KV, Petritsch C, Liu P, Ganss R, Passegué E, Song H, Vandenberg S, Johnson RS, Werb Z, Bergers G

Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.

Development of hypoxic regions is an indicator of poor prognosis in many tumors. Here, we demonstrate that HIF1alpha, the direct effector of hypoxia, partly through increases in SDF1alpha, induces recruitment of bone marrow-derived CD45+ myeloid cells containing Tie2+, VEGFR1+, CD11b+, and F4/80+ subpopulations, as well as endothelial and pericyte progenitor cells to promote neovascularization in glioblastoma. MMP-9 activity of bone marrow-derived CD45+ cells is essential and sufficient to initiate angiogenesis by increasing VEGF bioavailability. In the absence of HIF1alpha, SDF1alpha levels decrease, and fewer BM-derived cells are recruited to the tumors, decreasing MMP-9 and mobilization of VEGF. VEGF also directly regulates tumor cell invasiveness. When VEGF activity is impaired, tumor cells invade deep into the brain in the perivascular compartment.

Published 10 March 2008 in Cancer Cell, 13(3): 206-20.
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