MCF-10A cells infected with the int-2 oncogene induce angiogenesis in the chick chorioallantoic membrane and in the rat mesentery.

A growing body of evidence demonstrates the relevant role of the int-2 (FGF-3) oncogene in human carcinomas. To investigate its angiogenic activity, the human epithelial mammary cell line MCF-10A was infected with a retroviral expression vector carrying the int-2 oncogene. Infected cells were entrapped in an alginate pellet and placed on the chorioallantoic membrane of chick embryos. After 7 days, a dense capillary network was found to grow toward the pellet, whereas parental cells did not show any angiogenic activity. Conditioned medium from int-2-infected cells was injected i.p. twice daily into rats over a period of 10 days. The mesentery of treated rats showed numerous small blood vessels originating from larger vascular arcades and growing through the stromal layer of the mesentery. In control experiments, neither medium for cell culture nor conditioned medium from parental cells was found to induce angiogenesis. In conclusion, the stimulation of blood vessel growth by int-2-infected cells suggests that the production of the int-2 protein is associated with the acquisition of the angiogenic phenotype.