[Therapeutic effects of Avastin on the murine hemangioendothelioma]

Investigated the efficacy of Avastin on murine hemangioendothelioma in vitro and in vivo using a mouse hemangioendothelioma-derived cell line----EOMA.

The in vitro effect of Avastin on cell proliferation of EOMA cell line was measured by CCK-8 assay at 0, 50, 100, 200 mg/L concentration of Avastin. When tumors produced by subcutaneous injection of EOMA cells reached a volume of 100 mm(3), animals were treated by intra-tumor injection with Avastin (1 mg/kg body weight) or with vehicle alone (PBS) twice a week. Mice were weighted and tumors were measured three times weekly. At the end of the experiment, the mice were sacrificed and their tumors were excised and processed for histology. Immunohistochemical study of apoptosis was conducted using a TUNEL kit, tumor cell proliferation was assessed with anti-proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) antibody. Cardiac puncture was performed under deep anesthesia for collection of serum, serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) level was tested by VEGF-ELISA assay.

Avastin exhibited cell inhibited rate of 24.21%, 26.26% and 34.58% at 50, 100 and 200 mg/L, respectively. When experiment was terminated, the tumor volume in the PBS-treated mice was (1 860.10+/-146.96) mm3, being significantly larger than that in the mice that were treated by Avastin [(681.45+/-63.01) mm3, P<0.01]. Avastin-treated tumors showed decreased tumor cell proliferation and increased cell apoptosis. The VEGF level in mice treated with Avastin [(594.65+/-118.79) ng/L] was significantly lower than that in PBS-treated mice [(802.24+/-238.41) ng/L, P<0.05].

The results suggest that topically applied Avastin provides an effective and safe approach to treat hemangioendotheliomas and might be used as a novel treatment of angiomatous diseases in the future.