Effect of human recombinant Endostatin protein on human angiogenesis

Tumor growth and metastasis are dependent on the development of new blood vessels. Inhibitors of new vessel growth have been widely investigated as anti-tumor agents. Endostatin, a 20 kDa C-terminal fragment of collagen XVIII inhibits endothelial cell proliferation, induces endothelial cell apoptosis, and can both inhibit and reverse tumor growth in mice. However, human recombinant endostatin has had limited testing against human tissue targets. To investigate the effect of human endostatin on a human vessel target over a broad range of concentrations (10^–12–10^–4 M), human placental vein disks were grown for a period of 2 weeks in a 0.3% fibrin clot overlayed with growth medium. Disks from five individual placentas were tested. For each placenta utilized, a control (medium and 20% fetal bovine serum FBS]) group and a group treated with heparin (300 g/ml) and hydrocortisone 21-phosphate (350 g/ml) (heparin-steroid) at a dose known to inhibit angiogenesis were included. Endostatin was tested at concentrations of 10^–12–10^–4 M in medium containing 20% FBS. The rate of initiation and the angiogenic growth index (on a visually graded semi-quantitative scale of 0–16) were determined for all experimental conditions. Endostatin inhibited angiogenesis in our model only in high concentrations. At 10^–5 M, endostatin did not alter the percent of wells that initiated an angiogenic response, but significantly inhibited subsequent vessel growth. At 10^–4 M, endostatin was able to inhibit both initiation and subsequent new vessel growth. Human endostatin can inhibit the initiation of a human angiogenic response and inhibit the subsequent proliferation of human neovessels when used at high doses in a continuous exposure model.