Anti-angiogenic activity of arachidonic acid metabolism inhibitors in angiogenesis model systems involving human microvascular endothelial cells and neovascularization in mice.

We have established an in vitro angiogenesis model using human omental microvascular endothelial (HOME) cells, in which epidermal growth factor (EGF) or transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha) stimulated cell migration and tube formation. In this study, we examined whether alpha-guaiaconic acid (GR-12) and its synthetic 20 derivatives showed inhibition of cell migration and tubular formation of HOME cells. We found that GR-12 inhibits arachidonic acid metabolism, while GR-12 and one derivative, GS-01, inhibit tubular formation of endothelial cells in our model system. Confluent monolayers of HOME cells were damaged with a razor blade and incubated with or without TGF-alpha; HOME cell migration was stimulated about 1.5-fold over control values in the presence of TGF-alpha. Treatment of HOME cells with GR-12 or GS-01 inhibited both spontaneous and TGF-alpha-stimulated migration. GR-12 or GS-01 inhibited TGF-alpha-induced HOME-cell tube formation in type-1 collagen gels. We examined whether these compounds could modulate tubular formation of HOME cells induced by human cancer cells. Enhanced tube formation of HOME cells by co-cultured esophageal cancer cells was almost completely inhibited by co-administration of GR-12 or GS-01. Both compounds also inhibited formation of tubular networks of HOME cells on Matrigels. We also examined anti-angiogenic activity of these compounds in an in vivo model system of tumor angiogenesis in mice. In this system, GS-01 inhibited development of capillary networks at a rate comparable to that of a well-known anti-angiogenic compound, fumagillin, but GR-12 did not. The inhibitor of arachidonic acid metabolism is thus expected to modulate tumor angiogenesis.