Clinical Cancer Research, Vol 3, Issue 3 319-324, Copyright © 1997 by American Association for Cancer Research

ARTICLES

Effect of tumor necrosis factor alpha on vascular resistance, nitric oxide production, and glucose and oxygen consumption in perfused tissue-isolated human melanoma xenografts

CA Kristensen, S Roberge and RK Jain
Edwin L. Steele Laboratory, Department of Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

The effect of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) on vascular resistance, nitric oxide production, and consumption of oxygen and glucose was examined in a perfused tissue-isolated tumor model in nude mice. One experimental group was perfused with heparinized Krebs-Henseleit buffer, a second one was perfused with TNF-alpha (500 microgram/kg) 5 h before perfusion. The vascular resistance increased significantly 5 h after TNF-alpha injection. The increase in vascular resistance did not seem to be mediated by a decrease in tumor nitric oxide production, as determined by perfusate nitrate/nitrite concentrations, but may be due to aggregation of leukocytes, platelets, and erythrocytes and/or endothelial consumption among the three experimental groups. The oxygen consumption was linearly dependent on the amount of available oxygen in the perfusate, whereas the glucose consumption was constant and independent of the glucose delivery rate. The present experiments provide new insights into physiological and metabolic mechanisms of action of TNF- alpha for optimization of future treatment schedules involving TNF-alpha.

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