Angiogenesis is an important determinant of tumor growth and metastasis. Evidences show that heparins are effective not only in anticoagulant but also in the inhibition of angiogenesis. However, the mechanism is not clear.

Research group lead by Prof. DING Kan, Glycobiology & Glycochemistry lab in Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM) focuses on the study on the anti-tumor mechanism of polysaccharide. The results show that miR-10b is down-regulated by heparin in human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1), while angiogenesis is induced by miR-10b via targeting HoxD10. Thrombin induces the expression of Twist, the transcription factor of miR-10b, so as to promote the function of miR-10b, down-regulate the expression of HoxD10 further and promote angiogenesis. Interestingly, heparin binds to thrombin and reverses the function of thrombin, which inhibits the angiogenesis and lead to anti-cancer function. These results provide a new pathway for how heparin affects the angiogenesis. The results have been published online on Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2010, (doi:10.1074/jbc. M M111.224212).

The research work was mainly accomplished by Dr. SHEN Xiaokun in this lab. This program is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Full text: http://www.jbc.org/content/early/2011/06/03/jbc.M111.224212.full.pdf+html?sid=a91c8bd5-ea84-4b91-bb5e-0dde858a8fc7。

(Source of News: DING Kan’s group)