Abstract
Background To investigate the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and VEGF receptors (VEGFRs) on cell growth of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). Methods Western blotting was performed to detect the expression of VEGF in tumour tissues and paired normal tissues from twelve patients with ICC. ICC cell line Huh28 was treated with exogenous recombinant human VEGF (rhVEGF). Cell growth was evaluated by cell counting, proliferation was detected by BrdU cell proliferation assay, and apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. The expression of VEGF receptors VEGFR1/VEGFR2 in Huh28 cells after rhVEGF treatment was detected by Western blotting. VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 were blocked by specific antibodies, and cell apoptosis was examined by apoptosis-ELISA assay. The stably knockdown VEGFR2 cell line Huh28-shVEGFR2 (experimental group) and the control cell line Huh28-shNC (control group) were established using shRNA lentivirus. Subcutaneous tumour models in ten nude mice with Huh28-shVEGFR2 and Huh28-shNC were used to observe tumour growth. Results The protein expression of VEGF was up-regulated in ICC tumour tissues than in matched normal tissues (P Conclusions VEGF promotes ICC cells growth through inhibiting apoptosis of ICC cells in a VEGFR2-dependent signalling pathway.
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