Thrombospondin-1, PECAM-1, and regulation of angiogenesis

Thrombospondin-1 (TSP1) is a multidomain glycoprotein expressed by many cell types. It is a multifunctional protein with important roles in regulation of vascular cell functions. Mutation or loss of tumor suppressor genes results in down regulation of TSP1 expression during malignant transformation. Thus, suggesting that down regulation of TSP1 may contribute to development of the tumor angiogenic phenotype and perhaps tumor metastasis. TSP1 was demonstrated to be a natural inhibitor of angiogenesis. Peptides from procollagen-like domain and type 1 repeats of TSP1, like whole TSP1, inhibit the angiogenic response to a variety of angiogenic stimuli in vivo and endothelial cell (EC) migration in vitro by directly acting on ECs. The molecular mechanisms which mediate these inhibitory effects of TSP1 and its peptides are not understood. TSP1 expression is down regulated in the Polyoma middle T transformed mouse brain ECs (bEND.3). This may remove the TSP1 inhibitory effects allowing ECs to rapidly proliferate in culture and form hemangiomas in vivo. Re-expression of TSP1 in bEND.3 cells restores a normal phenotype and suppresses their ability to form hemangiomas. This is mediated by modulating expression of several genes in concert favoring a differentiated state of endothelium. TSP1 transfected bEND.3 cells down regulate expression of PECAM-1, a multifunctional endothelial cell adhesion molecule with essential roles in angiogenesis. A similar phenotype to that of TSP1 transfected cells was observed when endogenous PECAM-1 levels were down regulated by anti-sense transfection of bEND.3 cells. The anti-sense PECAM-1 transfected cells turn on expression of endogenous TSP1 and its angioinhibitory receptor, CD36. Expression of other genes with potential roles in regulation of EC phenotype were also affected in patterns very similar to those observed in TSP1 transfected bEND.3 cells. Therefore, it appears that a reciprocal relationship exists between TSP1 and PECAM-1 such that they are constituents of a "switch" that regulates in concert many components of the angiogenic and differentiated phenotype of ECs.