Exogenous fibroblast growth factor-2 induces a transformed phenotype in vascular kaposi's sarcoma-like cells

Vascular TTB cells derive from murine Kaposi's sarcoma-like dermal lesions and share several phenotypic features with AIDS-associated KS spindle cells. We have recently reported that fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) promotes dramatic cytoskeletal and morphological alterations in TTB cells, concomitant with the induction of an autocrine loop for hepatocyte growth factor and a relocalization of the urokinase receptor. Since all these alterations are hallmarks of cell transformation. we attempted to verify whether FGF-2 induces a transformed phenotype in TTB cells. Our results show that FGF-2-treated TTB cells acquire the ability to grow under anchorage-independent conditions. In addition, FGF-2 markedly reduced the levels of thrombospondin-1, an antiangiogenic and tumor suppressor protein, in TTB cells. Therefore, FGF-2 induces KS-like spindle cells to acquire properties characteristic of transformed cells. This suggests that FGF-2 plays a pathogenetic role in KS not only by promoting angiogenesis, but also by conferring a transformed phenotype upon KS cells. In light of previous reports on Tat-induced release of FGF-2 into the extracellular space, our findings may provide an additional mechanism for the observed synergism between Tat and FGF-2 in the pathogenesis of KS.