A novel tissue model for angiogenesis: evaluation of inhibitors or promoters in tissue level

A novel tissue model for angiogenesis (TMA) is established for effective evaluation of angiogenesis inhibitors or promoters in vitro. Lung tissues were cultured in fibrinogen "sandwich'' structure which resembled the formation of neovessels in vivo. The cells and capillary-like structures grew from the lung tissues were identified as endothelial cells and neovessels. Both immunohistochemisty and western blot results indicated that autocrine VEGF bound to the KDR and induced KDR autophosphorylation that could induce the proliferation of endothelial cells and their migration as well as the formation of microvessels on the lung tissue edge. With addition of the TMA, the murine VEGF and cultured medium produced by A549 tumor cells apparently promoted the increase of neovessels. Sorafenib as a tumor angiogenesis inhibitor and Tongxinluo as an angiogenesis promoter were both used to evaluate the TMA performance and they exhibited a good effect on neovessels in the TMA. The model established imitated angiogenesis in vivo and could well serve as an effective method in evaluating the angiogenesis inhibitors or promoters, and could also be practical for screening small molecules that affect blood vessel formation.