Growth-regulated oncogene is pivotal in thrombin-induced angiogenesis.

The mechanism of thrombin-induced angiogenesis is poorly understood. Using a gene chip array to investigate the pro-malignant phenotype of thrombin-stimulated cells, we observed that thrombin markedly up-regulates growth-regulated oncogene-alpha (GRO-alpha) in several tumor cell lines as well as endothelial cells by mRNA and protein analysis. Thrombin enhanced the secretion of GRO-alpha from tumor cells 25- to 64-fold. GRO-alpha is a CXC chemokine with tumor-associated angiogenic as well as oncogenic activation following ligation of its CXCR2 receptor. GRO-alpha enhanced angiogenesis in the chick chorioallantoic membrane assay 2.2-fold, providing direct evidence for GRO-alpha as an angiogenic growth factor. Anti-GRO-alpha antibody completely inhibited the 2.7-fold thrombin-induced up-regulation of angiogenesis, as well as the 1.5-fold thrombin-induced up-regulation of both endothelial cell cord formation in Matrigel and growth in vitro. Thrombin as well as its PAR-1 receptor activation peptide [thrombin receptor activation peptide (TRAP)] as well as GRO-alpha all markedly increased vascular regulatory proteins and growth factors: matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1, MMP-2, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2), CD31, and receptors KDR and CXCR2 in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. All of the thrombin/TRAP gene up-regulations were completely inhibited by anti-GRO-alpha antibody and unaffected by irrelevant antibody. Similar inhibition of gene up-regulation as well as thrombin-induced chemotaxis was noted with small interfering RNA (shRNA) GRO-alpha KD 4T1 breast tumor and B16F10 melanoma cells. In vivo tumor growth studies in wild-type mice with shRNA GRO-alpha KD cells revealed 2- to 4-fold impaired tumor growth, metastasis, and angiogenesis, which was not affected by endogenous thrombin. Thus, thrombin-induced angiogenesis requires the up-regulation of GRO-alpha. Thrombin up-regulation of GRO-alpha in tumor cells as well as endothelial cells contributes to tumor angiogenesis.