Affiliations: Dipartimento di Produzioni Animali, Biotecnologie
Veterinarie, Qualità e Sicurezza degli Alimenti, Sezione di Fisiologia
Veterinaria, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Dr. Giuseppina Basini,
Dipartimento di Produzioni Animali, Biotecnologie Veterinarie, Qualità e
Sicurezza degli Alimenti – Sezione di Fisiologia Veterinaria, Via del Taglio
8, 43100 Parma, Italy. Tel.: +39 0521 032775; Fax: +39 0521 032770; E-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract: Background: The identification of possible ways to block blood
vessels formation has become a major scientific objective of the last decade
and several phytochemicals are currently being exploited to target tumour
angiogenesis. Aim: The effects of Sanguinarine (SA), an alkaloid from the
root of Sanguinaria Canadensis, were evaluated in an in vitro
angiogenesis model; moreover the effects on Akt phosphorylation in porcine
aortic endothelial cell line (AOC) were also examined. Methods: SA (300
nM) was tested in the presence or absence of VEGF (100 ng/ml) in a three
dimensional angiogenesis bioassay obtained pipetting a suspension of AOC on
microcarrier beads in a fibrinogen solution before the addition of thrombine.
Endothelial cell proliferation was measured at 48, 96, 144, 192 h. The
phosphorylation of Akt was measured by ELISA in 2 × 10^{5} AOC
treated as described above. Results: The addition of SA abolished
(p< 0.001) VEGF stimulatory effect on AOC growth at all the examined
times. In addition, the stimulatory effect induced by VEGF on Akt
phosphorylation was significantly (p< 0.001) inhibited by SA. Conclusion: SA appear to be an antiangiogenic natural product by directly
suppressing the proliferative effect of VEGF on endothelial cell line: this
effect could be mediated by blocking the VEGF-induced Akt activation.
