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104. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Ophthalmologischen Gesellschaft 2006
Abstract
Abstract
SA.09.11 Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (flk-1) in tumor angiogenesis of malignant choroidal melanoma. A correlation of experimental results with prognostic parameters Ritter C., Wansel S., Köppel T., Bechrakis N. E., Foerster M. H.
Augenklinik, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin Objective: Tumors require an appropriate blood supply to grow. Angiogenesis – the sprouting of new vessels from preexisting vessels – is thought to be the central mechanism of neovascularization. The key mediator of angiogenesis is the endothelial cell mitogen Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) with its receptors, especially VEGFR-2 (flk-1). The purpose was to detect flk-1 in malignant choroidal melanoma.
Methods: We investigated the expression of flk-1 in 38 tissue samples of choroidal melanoma by western blot analysis and immunhistochemistry. Statistical analysis was followed correlating experimental results with other prognostic parameters.
Results: We detected flk-1 in choroidal melanoma using the above-mentioned methods. The extent of the expression of flk-1 in western blot could be correlated with age of the patients, tumor prominence and expression of VEGF.
Conclusions: The existence of flk-1 in malignant choroidal melanoma is linked to the participation of angiogenesis in neovascularization of this tumor. Correlating the experimental results with other tumor data showed an increase of the flk-expression with increasing tumor prominence. Thus, large tumors are likely to present a higher rate of angiogenic factors, which probably contributes to future anti-angiogenic therapy.
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