Bidirectional Eph/ephrin signaling in the crosstalk at the tumor-vessel interface

• Antragstellerin: Professorin Dr. Amparo Acker-Palmer
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Pathologie
• Förderung: Förderung von 2006 bis 2012
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 21993694

Eph receptors mediate short-range cell-to-cell communication by binding membrane-bound ephrin ligands expressed by neighbouring cells. They function in an amazing variety of developmental and adult processes like cell migration, axon guidance and topographic mapping, segmental patterning, synapse morphology and synapse plasticity, angiogenesis and tumorigenesis. The main goal of this project is to study the Eph and ephrin system in the context of tumor angiogenesis and tumor cell behavior. We will study the process of tumor-induced blood vessel formation with focus on endothelial cell-endothelial cell and tumor cell- endothelial cell communication. Cell adhesion and repulsion mediated by Eph and ephrins in various angiogenesis assays involving glioma and endothelial cells will be analyzed. We plan to do loss-of-function experiments by isolating endothelial cells from conditional mice lacking ephrinB2 as well as from ephrinB2 signaling mutant mice. In order to study the requirements for Eph/ephrin signaling in the tumor cells for tumor growth and invasiveness in vitro and in vivo, murine gliomas with mutated ephrinB2 or lacking ephrinB ligands will be generated by isolation and transformation of astrocytes from genetically engineered mice.

• DFG-Verfahren: Schwerpunktprogramme
• Teilprojekt zu: SPP 1190: The tumor - vessel interface