Abstract
Normalization of tumor vasculature is an emerging strategy to improve cytotoxic therapies. Here we show that eliminating nitric oxide (NO) production from tumor cells via neuronal NO synthase silencing or inhibition establishes perivascular gradients of NO in human glioma xenografts in mice and normalizes the tumor vasculature, resulting in improved tumor oxygenation and response to radiation treatment. Creation of perivascular NO gradients may be an effective strategy for normalizing abnormal vasculature.
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Acknowledgements
We thank H.D. Suit and K.D. Held for their insightful suggestions; L.L. Munn, D. Fuja and C.D. Ley for their assistance in image analysis; D. Laccore for her assistance in hypoxia detection; S.S. Chae for his assistance in western blot analysis; P. Huang for his direction of the gnotobiotic animal facility; and M. Fortier, J. Kahn, M. Riley, S. Roberge, E. Smith and C. Smith for their excellent technical assistance. This work was supported by National Cancer Institute grants R01-CA96915 (D.F.) and P01-CA80124 (R.K.J. and D.F.).
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S.K. performed most of the experiments; K.T. and J.M. performed intravital microscopy and animal studies; L.X. contributed to mutant cell generation and molecular analysis; S.V.K. and L.E.G. contributed to radiation studies and writing; J.A.T. contributed to image analysis; W.C.S. contributed to the cavtratin study; S.K., R.K.J. and D.F. designed the study, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.
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Kashiwagi, S., Tsukada, K., Xu, L. et al. Perivascular nitric oxide gradients normalize tumor vasculature. Nat Med 14, 255–257 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1730
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1730
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