Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0017638 (glioma)
 30,880 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Angiogenesis is a prerequisite for tumour progression and is highly regulated by growth factors and cytokines a number of which also stimulate the production of nitric oxide. Asymmetric dimethylarginine is an endogenous inhibitor of nitric oxide synthesis. Asymmetric dimethylarginine is metabolised by dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase. To study the effect of dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase on tumour growth and vascular development, the rat C6 glioma cell line was manipulated to overexpress the rat gene for dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase I. Enhanced expression of dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase I increased nitric oxide synthesis (as indicated by a two-fold increase in the production of cGMP), expression and secretion of vascular endothelial cell growth factor, and induced angiogenesis in vitro. Tumours derived from these cells grew more rapidly in vivo than cells with normal dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase I expression. Immunohistochemical and magnetic resonance imaging measurements were consistent with increased tumour vascular development. Furthermore, dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase activity was detected in a series of human tumours. This data demonstrates that dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase plays a pivotal role in tumour growth and the development of the tumour vasculature by regulating the concentration of nitric oxide and altering vascular endothelial cell growth factor production.
 ...
PMID:Dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase I enhances tumour growth and angiogenesis. 1223 79

The oxygenation status of tumors derived from wild-type C6 glioma cells and clone D27 cells overexpressing dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH) was assessed in vivo using a variety of direct and indirect assays of hypoxia. Clone D27 tumors exhibit a more aggressive and better-vascularized phenotype compared to wild-type C6 gliomas. Immunohistochemical analyses using the 2-nitroimidazole hypoxia marker pimonidazole, fiber optic OxyLite measurements of tumor pO2, and localized 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy measurements of tumor bioenergetic status and pH clearly demonstrated that the D27 tumors were more hypoxic compared to C6 wild type. In the tumor extracts, only glucose concentrations were significantly lower in the D27 tumors. Elevated Glut-1 expression, a reliable functional marker for hypoxia-inducible factor-1-mediated metabolic adaptation, was observed in the D27 tumors. Together, the data show that overexpression of DDAH results in C6 gliomas that are more hypoxic compared to wild-type tumors, and point strongly to an inverse relationship of tumor oxygenation and angiogenesis in vivo--a concept now being supported by the enhanced understanding of oxygen sensing at the molecular level.
 ...
PMID:Overexpression of dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase enhances tumor hypoxia: an insight into the relationship of hypoxia and angiogenesis in vivo. 1525 62

Nitric oxide (NO) has been strongly implicated in glioma progression and angiogenesis. The endogenous inhibitors of NO synthesis, asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and N-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA), are metabolized by dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), and hence, DDAH is an intracellular factor that regulates NO. However, DDAH may also have an NO-independent action. We aimed to investigate whether DDAH I has any direct role in tumour vascular development and growth independent of its NO-mediated effects, in order to establish the future potential of DDAH inhibition as an anti-angiogenic treatment strategy. A clone of rat C6 glioma cells deficient in NO production expressing a pTet Off regulatable element was identified and engineered to overexpress DDAH I in the absence of doxycycline. Xenografts derived from these cells were propagated in the presence or absence of doxycycline and susceptibility magnetic resonance imaging used to assess functional vasculature in vivo. Pathological correlates of tumour vascular density, maturation and function were also sought. In the absence of doxycycline, tumours exhibited high DDAH I expression and activity, which was suppressed in its presence. However, overexpression of DDAH I had no measurable effect on tumour growth, vessel density, function or maturation. These data suggest that in C6 gliomas DDAH has no NO-independent effects on tumour growth and angiogenesis, and that the therapeutic potential of targeting DDAH in gliomas should only be considered in the context of NO regulation.
 ...
PMID:Assessment of the direct effects of DDAH I on tumour angiogenesis in vivo. 2972 31