RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A novel clinical role for angiopoietin-1 in malignant pleural mesothelioma
JF European Respiratory Journal
JO Eur Respir J
FD European Respiratory Society
SP 1099
OP 1105
DO 10.1183/09031936.00154009
VO 36
IS 5
A1 C. Tabata
A1 N. Hirayama
A1 R. Tabata
A1 A. Yasumitsu
A1 S. Yamada
A1 A. Murakami
A1 S. Iida
A1 K. Tamura
A1 K. Fukuoka
A1 K. Kuribayashi
A1 T. Terada
A1 T. Nakano
YR 2010
UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/36/5/1099.abstract
AB Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive malignant tumour associated with asbestos exposure that has only a limited response to conventional therapy; therefore, diagnosing MPM early is very important. We have previously reported that angiopoietin (Ang)-1 was correlated with bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Here, we investigated the association of Ang-1 with the development of MPM cells, which originate from mesenchymal cells similar to lung fibroblasts, and demonstrated that Ang-1 stimulated the growth and migration of MPM cells in vitro. We also demonstrated that patients with MPM had significantly higher serum levels of Ang-1 in comparison to a population who had been exposed to asbestos but had not developed MPM. The patients with advanced-stage MPM showed higher levels of Ang-1 than the early-stage MPM patients and the Kaplan–Meier method revealed a significant correlation between serum Ang-1 levels and survival. We propose the possibility that Ang-1 plays an important role in MPM tumour growth and our data suggest that the serum concentration of Ang-1 could be useful as prognostic factor.