Editor's Summary

31 July 2008

Anti-angiogenesis: VEGFR-3 shows its paces

The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor subtype VEGFR-3 is expressed only on lymphatic endothelium in adults. A new study, however, finds that VEGFR-3 is upregulated in the vasculature of tumours by Notch signalling. VEGFR-3 inhibition interferes with tumour angiogenesis and tumour growth, in particular in combination with inhibitors of VEGFR-2, suggesting that it represents a novel anti-angiogenic target for cancer therapy.

Letter: Blocking VEGFR-3 suppresses angiogenic sprouting and vascular network formation

Tuomas Tammela, Georgia Zarkada, Elisabet Wallgard, Aino Murtomäki, Steven Suchting, Maria Wirzenius, Marika Waltari, Mats Hellström, Tibor Schomber, Reetta Peltonen, Catarina Freitas, Antonio Duarte, Helena Isoniemi, Pirjo Laakkonen, Gerhard Christofori, Seppo Ylä-Herttuala, Masabumi Shibuya, Bronislaw Pytowski, Anne Eichmann, Christer Betsholtz & Kari Alitalo

doi:10.1038/nature07083

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