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* Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, University of Vienna, A-1030 Vienna, Austria; The middle T antigen of murine Polyomavirus (PymT) rapidly transforms endothelial cells, leading
to the formation of vascular tumors in newborn mice.
Transformed endothelial (End.) cell lines established
from such tumors exhibit altered proteolytic activity as
a result of increased expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and are capable of inducing
vascular tumors efficiently when injected into adult
mice. In this study we have used mice lacking components of the PA/plasmin system to analyze the role of
this system in the transformation process and in tumor
growth. We found that the proteolytic status of the host
is not a critical determinant for PymT-induced vascular
tumor formation. In addition, the lack of either uPA or
tissue-type PA (tPA) activity is not limiting for the establishment and proliferation of End. cells in vitro, although the combined loss of both PA activities leads to
a marked reduction in proliferation rates. Furthermore,
the in vitro morphogenetic properties of mutant End.
cells in fibrin gels could only be correlated with an altered proteolytic status in cells lacking both uPA and
tPA. However, in contrast with tumors induced by
PymT itself, the tumorigenic potential of mutant and wild-type End. cell lines was found to be highly dependent on the proteolytic status of both the tumor cells
and the host. Thus, genetic alterations in the PA/plasmin system affect vascular tumor development, indicating that this system is a causal component in PymTmediated oncogenesis.
Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada; § Department of Morphology,
Department of Pathology, University Medical Center, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland; ¶ Max-Planck Institute for Physiological and Clinical Research, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, D-61231
Bad Nauheim, Germany; and ** Center for Transgene Technology and Gene Therapy, Flanders Interuniversity Institute for
Biotechnology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
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