Study of Inducing Normal Endothelial Cells to Acquire the Characteristics of Tumor-derived Endothelium

Objective] To investigate whether human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) can acquire the characteristics of tumor-derived endothelium after cultivation in condition medium contained tumor cell cultured supernatant. The aim of this study was to seek a simple way to obtain tumor-derived endothelial cells. [Methods] HUVEC were cultured in condition medium supplemented with cultured supernatant of human hepatocarcinoma cell line HepG2. MTS method was used to measure the proliferation rate of HUVEC. Expression of VEGFR2 was detected by immunocytochemistry and quantified by image analysis. Expression of tumor endothelial marker 1 and 8 (TEM1 and TEM8) mRNA were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). [Results] The proliferation rates of HUVEC were 71%, 89%, and 109%, respectively, after cultivation in condition medium supplemented with 10%, 20%, and 40% HepG2 cell cultured supernatant. The average optical density of VEGFR2 in HUVEC cultivation in condition medium supplemented with 50% HepG2 cell cultured supernatant was significantly increased than that in the control groups (P 0.05). Expression of TEM1 and TEM8 mRNA could be positively detected in treated HUVEC, whereas not detected in the control groups. [Conclusion] Supernatant from HepG2 culture medium can promote proliferation of HUVEC. After treatment with the condition medium supplemented with HepG2 cell cultured supernatant,HUVEC acquire some characteristics of tumor-derived endothelium.