Investigating of the effects of lycopene on angiogenesis formation

Angiogenesis is the formation process of new blood vessels from preexisting ones. This process plays an important role in some physiological and pathological conditions. Solid tumors depend on angiogenesis for growth and metastasis. After the new networks of blood vessels penetrate into tumor tissues, they supply nutrients and oxygen and removing waste products. The potential to block tumor growth by inhibition of the neoangiogenic process represents an intriguing approach to the treatment of solid tumorsLycopene, one of the carotenoids, is synthesized by plants and photosynthetic micro-organisms. Lycopene which is a powerful antioxidant is highly reactive towards free radicals. Serum and tissue lycopene levels have been known to be inversely related to the incidence of several types of cancer.Although lycopene was shown to reppress the proliferation of cancer cells, it couldn?t be seemed any study in literature showing effects of lycopene on endothelial cells and on the formation process of angiogenesis which is important in cancer therapy. Besides, in several studies, though it was shown lycopene is also effective on metastasis, it was seen there was no study investigating relationship between lycopene and vessel formation process of endothelial cells supplying basic facilities for metastasis formation. Therefore, in this study, it was aimed to be searched the effects of lycopene on angiogenesis process of endothelial cells playing an important role in cancer development, and to be compared with apigenin which it is known the effects of. For this aim, we measured in vitro angiogenesis by capillary-like tubular network formation assay, the percentages of viable cells by methyl tetrazolium salt staining assay, cell migration levels by Boyden Chamber system and directional cell migration by wound healing assay in HUVEC endothelial cells which were treated with lycopene or apigenin.In our study, it was seen that lycopene and apigenin repressed the cell proliferation as a dose dependent manner and cell migration at the most effective dose used in the experiment as compared with controls in endothelial cells. It was found that lycopene and apigenin decreased the capillary-like tube lengths as a dose dependent manner and inhibited tube formation.In this study, lycopene which has been thought as a chemoprevention agent has been shown to be effective on endothelial cells and angiogenesis, as well. Therefore, as a leading study, this study will be able to direct further angiogenesis experiments related with lycopene and endothelial cells.Keywords: Angiogenesis, HUVEC, lycopene, apigenin, cell migration, tube formation, cell proliferation.