Dolo V, D'Ascenzo S, Giusti I, Millimaggi D, Taraboletti G, Pavan A
Department of Experimental Medicine, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
Ital J Anat Embryol. 2005;110(2 Suppl 1):127-33.
Shedding of membrane vesicles is a vital phenomenon frequently observed in tumor cells and suggested to be involved in several aspects of tumor progression. Our previous studies have shown that human breast tumor cells rapidly shed membrane vesicles containing matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). In this study we present that human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) as well as different tumor cell lines (human ovarian cancer, CABA I and A2780, and hepatocarcinoma cell line, SK-Hep 1) shed vesicles in the extracellular medium. These vesicles carry MMPs and their inhibitors TIMPs. We conclude that tumor and endothelial cells shed MMP-containing vesicles and this may represent a mechanism for regulating focalized proteolytic activity and a way to interact with microenvironment during tumor angiogenesis.
膜泡脱落是一种在肿瘤细胞中经常观察到的重要现象，并且被认为与肿瘤进展的多个方面有关。我们之前的研究表明，人乳腺肿瘤细胞会迅速脱落含有基质金属蛋白酶（MMPs）的膜泡。在本研究中，我们发现人脐静脉内皮细胞（HUVEC）以及不同的肿瘤细胞系（人卵巢癌CABA I和A2780，以及肝癌细胞系SK-Hep 1）会在细胞外培养基中脱落膜泡。这些膜泡携带MMPs及其抑制剂组织金属蛋白酶抑制剂（TIMPs）。我们得出结论，肿瘤细胞和内皮细胞会脱落含有MMPs的膜泡，这可能代表了一种调节局部蛋白水解活性的机制，以及肿瘤血管生成过程中与微环境相互作用的一种方式。
