title: Increased microvessel density in involved organs from patients with HTLV-I associated adult T cell leukemia lymphoma.
abstract: Adult T-cell leukemia-lymphoma (ATLL) is a rapidly progressive lymphoproliferative disorder secondary to infection with the human T cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I). The role of angiogenesis in the development and prognosis of many hematologic malignancies is established. We have previously shown that ATLL derived cells secrete high levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF), induce endothelial tube formation in vitro and establish functional gap junction-mediated communication with endothelial cells. We also demonstrated that plasma from ATLL and tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-I associated myelopathy patients exhibit very high levels of VEGF and b-FGF. Recently, we showed that treatment with the combination of zidovudine and interferon alpha reduced both HTLV-I proviral load and importantly VEGF plasma levels suggesting a potential anti-angiogenic effect of this therapy. In this report, we evaluated microvessel density (MVD) in involved organs from 20 patients with ATLL, as compared to normal organs from matched controls. We show evidence of significantly increased MVD in all tested involved organs from ATLL patients, suggesting that angiogenesis plays an important role in the development or organ invasion of ATLL, and could represent a potentially interesting target for anti-angiogenic therapy of ATLL.
authors.affiliation: Immunology Research Centre, Bu-Ali Research Institute, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Ghada
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kchour
authors.forename: Mahdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tarhini
authors.forename: Nourieh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sharifi
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Farid
authors.forename: Ali Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Khooei
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shirdel
authors.forename: Jalil Tavakkol
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Afshari
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sadeghian
authors.forename: Zaher
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Otrock
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hermine
authors.forename: Marwan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El-Sabban
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bazarbachi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000098:blood supply; D002196:Capillaries; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D015459:Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000098:blood supply; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D012867:Skin / Q000098:blood supply; D013737:Testis / Q000098:blood supply