Anti-Tumor Effects of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Inhibitor on Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Lines

ABSTRACT

Tumor angiogenesis is a process leading to formation of blood vessels within tumors and is crucial for maintaining a supply of oxygen and nutrients to support tumor growth and metastasis. Vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) plays a key role in tumor angiogenesis including induction of endothelial cell proliferation, migration, survival and capillary tube formation. VEGF binds to two distinct receptors on endothelial cells. VEGFR-2 is considered to be the dominant signaling receptor for endothelial cell permeability, proliferation, and differentiation. Bevacizumab(Avastin, Genetech, USA) is a monoclonal antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor. It is used in the treatment of cancer, where it inhibits tumor growth by blocking the formation of new blood vessels. The goal of this study is to identify the anti-tumor effect of Bevacizumab(Avastin) for oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines. Human squamous cell carcinoma cell line(HN4) was used in this study. We examined the sensitivity of HN4 cell line to Bevacizumab(Avastin) by using in vitro proliferation assays. The results were as follows. 1. In the result of MTT assay according to concentration of Bevacizumab(Avastin), antiproliferative effect for oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines was observed. 2. The growth curve of cell line showed the gradual growth inhibition of oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines after exposure of Bevacizumab(Avastin). 3. In the apoptotic index, groups inoculated Bevacizumab(Avastin) were higher than control groups. 4. In condition of serum starvation, VEGFR-2 did not show any detectable autophosphorylation, whereas the addition of VEGF activated the receptor. Suppression of phosphorylated VEGFR-2 and phosphorylated MAPK was observed following treatment with Bevacizumab(Avastin) in a dose-dependent manner. 5. In TEM view, dispersed nuclear membrane, scattered many cytoplasmic vacuoles and localized chromosomal margination after Bevacizumab(Avastin) treatment were observed. These findings suggest that Bevacizumab(Avastin) has the potential to inhibit MAPK pathway in proliferation of oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines via inhibition of VEGF-dependent tumor growth.