Photochemotherapy inhibits angiogenesis and induces apoptosis of endothelial cells in vitro.
BACKGROUND
Photochemotherapy has long been used in the treatment of psoriasis; however, its mechanism has not been completely elucidated. Psoriasis is now regarded as an angiogenesis-related disease. Recent studies indicated that the inhibition of angiogenesis by photochemotherapy could be an underlying mechanism. It was found that photochemotherapy can downregulate the expression of angiogenic factors in keratinocytes. However, the direct effect of photochemotherapy on endothelial cells has not been studied.


METHODS
In this study, we determined the effect of photochemotherapy on the proliferation of human microvascular endothelial cells through MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay and cell cycle analysis. The migration assay and in vitro tube formation assay were used to investigate the migration properties and tube formation ability of human microvascular endothelial cells after psoralen plus UVA (PUVA) treatment. The apoptosis of endothelial cells elicited by photochemotherapy was also analyzed with fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis (FACS).


RESULTS
UVA (0.8-5.0 J/cm(2)) irradiation with the presence of 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) (300 ng/ml) resulted in a dose-dependent reduction in the cell viabilities of endothelial cells. FACS data showed an accumulation of cells in G0/G1 phase of cell cycle and apoptotic features of cell death after UVA irradiation with psoralen. The migration properties and tube formation ability of endothelial cells were dramatically inhibited by photochemotherapy.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results showed that photochemotherapy inhibits angiogenesis and induces apoptosis of human microvascular endothelial cells in vitro, which may be a possible mechanism of photochemotherapy in the treatment of psoriasis.
Deng
Hui
H
Department of Dermatology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, 12 Wulumuqi Zhonglu, Shanghai 200040, China. denghui_1@yahoo.com
Yan
Chun-lin
CL
Hu
Yue
Y
Xu
Yu
Y
Liao
Kang-huang
KH
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000528:radiation effects; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000187:drug effects / Q000528:radiation effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004727:Endothelium / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D011701:PUVA Therapy