Combined effects of radiotherapy and endostatin gene therapy in melanoma tumor model

PEgr–Endostatin–EGFP plasmid was constructed to investigate its expression properties induced by ionizing irradiation and the effect of pEgr–Endostatin–EGFP gene-radiotherapy on melanoma tumor-bearing mice. The pEgr–Endostatin–EGFP plasmid was transfected into B16 cell line with liposome. The expression property of endostatin was investigated by RT-PCR and that of EGFP was detected by flow cytometry. Tumor-bearing mice were treated by the plasmid injection and 2 Gy X-irradiation of three fractions. Tumor growth was observed for 18 days after treatment. Change of tumor capillary formation was measured with histochemistry assay at the end of the experiment. The expression of GFP in B16 melanoma cells was detected after X-irradiation with 0.05–20 Gy. Time-course studies showed that the expression of GFP in B16 cells reached its peak at 8 h after irradiation with 2 Gy. The injection of pEgr–Endostatin–EGFP recombinant plasmid into the implanted B16 melanoma in C57BL/6J mice followed by local X-irradiation could significantly inhibit tumor growth with inhibition of intratumor micro-vessel density. The inhibitory effect of pEgr–Endostatin–EGFP gene-radiotherapy on the growth of B16 melanoma is correlated with the marked decrease of intratumoral vascularization. The present data point to the potential of an anti-angiogenic approach in gene-radiotherapy of cancer.