A vascular niche and a VEGF–Nrp1 loop regulate the initiation and stemness of skin tumours (original) (raw)

Nature volume 478, pages 399–403 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Angiogenesis is critical during tumour initiation and malignant progression1. Different strategies aimed at blocking vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors have been developed to inhibit angiogenesis in cancer patients2. It has become increasingly clear that in addition to its effect on angiogenesis, other mechanisms including a direct effect of VEGF on tumour cells may account for the efficiency of VEGF-blockade therapies3. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been described in various cancers including squamous tumours of the skin4,5. Here we use a mouse model of skin tumours to investigate the impact of the vascular niche and VEGF signalling on controlling the stemness (the ability to self renew and differentiate) of squamous skin tumours during the early stages of tumour progression. We show that CSCs of skin papillomas are localized in a perivascular niche, in the immediate vicinity of endothelial cells. Furthermore, blocking VEGFR2 caused tumour regression not only by decreasing the microvascular density, but also by reducing CSC pool size and impairing CSC renewal properties. Conditional deletion of Vegfa in tumour epithelial cells caused tumours to regress, whereas VEGF overexpression by tumour epithelial cells accelerated tumour growth. In addition to its well-known effect on angiogenesis, VEGF affected skin tumour growth by promoting cancer stemness and symmetric CSC division, leading to CSC expansion. Moreover, deletion of neuropilin-1 (Nrp1), a VEGF co-receptor expressed in cutaneous CSCs, blocked VEGF’s ability to promote cancer stemness and renewal. Our results identify a dual role for tumour-cell-derived VEGF in promoting cancer stemness: by stimulating angiogenesis in a paracrine manner, VEGF creates a perivascular niche for CSCs, and by directly affecting CSCs through Nrp1 in an autocrine loop, VEGF stimulates cancer stemness and renewal. Finally, deletion of Nrp1 in normal epidermis prevents skin tumour initiation. These results may have important implications for the prevention and treatment of skin cancers.

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Gene Expression Omnibus

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Microarray data have been deposited in the GEO database under accession number GSE31465.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Genetech for providing blocking anti-Nrp1 antibodies and H. Fujisawa, N. Ferrara and A. Nagy for providing the _Nrp1_fl/−, _Vegf_fl/fl and ROSA26-VEGF-164 mice, respectively. C.B. is an investigator of Welbio. C.B. and P.A.S. are chercheur qualifié and B.B. is a chargé de recherche of the FRS/FNRS; Am.C. and G.M. are research fellows of the FRS/FRIA. G.D. is supported by the Brussels Region, B.D. and K.K.Y. by TELEVIE and. S.G. is a postdoctoral fellow of the Basic Science Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO). S.L. is funded by the Max-Eder group leader program of the Deutsche Krebshilfe, by the Hamburger Krebsgesellschaft and by the Roggenbuck Stiftung. P.C. is funded by Long-term structural Methusalem funding by the Flemish Government. This work was supported by the FNRS, the program d’excellence CIBLES of the Wallonia Region, a research grant from the Fondation Contre le Cancer, the ULB foundation and the fond Gaston Ithier, a starting grant of the European Research Council (ERC) and the EMBO Young Investigator Program.

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Author notes

  1. Sonja Loges
    Present address: Present address: Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, II, Medical Clinic & Institute of Tumor Biology, Hamburg 20246, Germany.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRIBHM, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 808 route de Lennik, 1070 Brussels, Belgium
    Benjamin Beck, Gregory Driessens, Khalil Kass Youssef, Amélie Caauwe, Panagiota A. Sotiropoulou, Gaelle Lapouge, Aurélie Candi, Guilhem Mascre, Benjamin Drogat, Sophie Dekoninck & Cédric Blanpain
  2. VIB Department for Molecular Biomedical Research, Vascular Cell Biology Unit, 9052 Ghent, Belgium
    Steven Goossens & Jody J. Haigh
  3. UGent Department for Molecular Biomedical Research, 9052 Ghent, Belgium
    Steven Goossens, Anna Kuchnio & Jody J. Haigh
  4. Laboratory of Angiogenesis and Neurovascular Link, Vesalius Research Center, VIB, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
    Anna Kuchnio, Sonja Loges & Peter Carmeliet
  5. Laboratory of Angiogenesis and Neurovascular Link, Vesalius Research Center, K.U. Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
    Sonja Loges & Peter Carmeliet
  6. Welbio, IRIBHM, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 808 route de Lennik, 1070 Brussels, Belgium
    Cédric Blanpain

Authors

  1. Benjamin Beck
  2. Gregory Driessens
  3. Steven Goossens
  4. Khalil Kass Youssef
  5. Anna Kuchnio
  6. Amélie Caauwe
  7. Panagiota A. Sotiropoulou
  8. Sonja Loges
  9. Gaelle Lapouge
  10. Aurélie Candi
  11. Guilhem Mascre
  12. Benjamin Drogat
  13. Sophie Dekoninck
  14. Jody J. Haigh
  15. Peter Carmeliet
  16. Cédric Blanpain

Contributions

C.B., B.B., G.D., S.G., K.K.Y., P.C. and J.J.H. designed the experiments and performed data analysis. B.B., G.D., S.G., K.K.Y., G.L., S.L. and A.K. performed most of the experiments; P.A.S., Au.C., G.M. and B.D. contributed to mice treatment; S.D. and Am.C. provided technical support. C.B. and B.B. wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toCédric Blanpain.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Beck, B., Driessens, G., Goossens, S. et al. A vascular niche and a VEGF–Nrp1 loop regulate the initiation and stemness of skin tumours.Nature 478, 399–403 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10525

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Editorial Summary

Targeting a cancer stem-cell niche

Experiments in a mouse model of skin papillomas show that the tumour vasculature not only supplies blood, but also serves as a vascular niche environment that supports cancer stem cells. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression by tumour cells is important for angiogenesis, but also acts in an autocrine manner through its receptor to promote self-renewing divisions of cancer stem cells. Deletion of Nrp1 blocked the ability of VEGF to promote tumorigenesis, and may be a viable therapeutic target for skin cancers.

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