Angiopoietin-like 4 Levels Research Articles

Aqueous Levels of Angiopoietin-like 4 and Semaphorin 3E Correlate with Nonperfusion Area and Macular Volume in Diabetic Retinopathy

To investigate the aqueous levels of angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4), semaphorin 3E (Sema3E), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with diabetic retinopathy and to ascertain their association with diabetic retinopathy phenotypes. Prospective, nonrandomized, comparative case series. Of all 104 consecutive patients (104 eyes) who had intravitreal anti-VEGF injections from April 2012 through April 2013 for diabetic macular edema (DME), 51 had severe nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and 53 had proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). The controls were 54 consecutive nondiabetic patients who had undergone cataract surgery (54 eyes) during the same period. The ANGPTL4, Sema3E, and VEGF levels in aqueous humor samples obtained before intravitreal injections were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Capillary nonperfusion area (NPA) was calculated from encircled angiography using the 7 standard field images described in the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study protocol. Total macular volume (TMV) was measured by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Aqueous ANGPTL4, Sema3E, and VEGF levels in severe NPDR, PDR, and control groups and their correlations with each other, NPA, and TMV. The severe NPDR and PDR groups had higher aqueous levels of ANGPTL4 and VEGF than the control group (all P < 0.001). The PDR group had higher ANGPTL4 and VEGF levels than the severe NPDR group (both P < 0.001). The aqueous ANGPTL4 levels of all diabetic retinopathy patients correlated positively with NPA (r = 0.820, P = 0.003) and TMV (r = 0.824, P < 0.001). The control group had higher aqueous Sema3E levels than the NPDR and PDR groups (both P < 0.001). Aqueous Sema3E levels correlated negatively with VEGF levels in all subjects (r = -0.57, P = 0.025). The ANGPTL4 may be a candidate target in DME treatment and a biomarker of ischemic-induced retinopathy, including diabetic retinopathy.

Abstract 389: The functional relevance of decreased ANGPTL4 in human urinary bladder cancer.

Abstract Transitional cell carcinoma is the most common urothelial cancer in the US. Current therapeutic options have been unable to overcome issues with the highly recurrent nature of this tumor, which requires frequent follow-up making urinary bladder cancer, one of the most expensive solid tumors to manage. Microarray-based gene expression analysis in response to capsaicin treatment identified significant upregulation of angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) compared with solvent-treated bladder cancer cells. The focus of this study was to determine the functional relevance of ANGPTL4 in normal urothelial and bladder cancer cells. The microarray data was validated in a panel of normal, immortalized and bladder cancer cells of increasing stage by real-time qPCR, immunoblotting, and ELISA. To determine the possible function of ANGPTL4, we knocked down and overexpressed ANGPTL4 in normal urothelial and bladder cancer cells respectively. The role of ANGPTL4 in growth, proliferation and angiogenesis was assessed. Our results show that normal urothelial cells have significantly higher levels of ANGPTL4 when compared to non-tumorigenic and bladder cancer cells. Upon capsaicin treatment ANGPTL4 levels increased in all cell lines tested. Overexpression of ANGPTL4 in the metastatic cell line TCCSUP, led to decrease in cell growth. Further, ANGPTL4 knockdown increased cell growth in the normal urothelial cell line. Capsaicin treatment decreased the expression of VEGF in bladder cancer cell lines UMUC-3 and T24 as well as reduced expression in normal urothelium, albeit initial results in ANGPLT4-knockdown in normal urothelium indicates no change in VEGF expression. Our results thus far suggest that the loss of ANGPTL4 expression may be involved in bladder cancer. The mechanism involved is under investigation. Capsaicin remains an attractive compound for further studies in bladder cancer. Supported by RO3 CA136058 (RG) and NIHT32 T32CA148724 (EC). Citation Format: Eduardo Cardenas, Tiffani Horton, Rita Ghosh. The functional relevance of decreased ANGPTL4 in human urinary bladder cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 389. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-389