Abstract
A co-culture assay with human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDFs) was used to study whether selected angiogenesis inhibitors were able to inhibit differentiation and network formation of HUVECs in vitro. The effect of the inhibitors was determined by the morphology and the calculated percentage area covered by HUVECs. Neutralizing VEGF with avastin and polyclonal goat anti-VEGF antibody and inhibiting VEGFR2 with sorafenib and vatalanib resulted in the formation of HUVEC clusters of variable sizes as a result of inhibited EC differentiation. Furthermore, numerous inhibitors of the VEGF signaling pathways were tested for their effect on the growth and differentiation of HUVECs. The effects of these inhibitors did not reveal a cluster morphology, either individually or when combined to block VEGFR2 downstream pathways. Only the addition of N-methyl-p-bromolevamisole revealed a similar morphology as when targeting VEGF and VEGFR2, meaning it may have an inhibitory influence directly on VEGFR signaling. Additionally, several nuclear receptor ligands and miscellaneous compounds that might affect EC growth and differentiation were tested, but only dexamethasone gave rise to cluster formation similarly to VEGF-neutralizing compounds. These results point to a link between angiogenesis, HUVEC differentiation and glucocorticoid receptor activation.