The role of macrophages in tumor angiogenesis has been known to influence in the production of angiogenic cytokines and growth factors including TNF-alpha. Recently, macrophages were also found to produce INF-gamma, which were found to be involved in angiogenic inhibition. Thus, the importance of macrophages in tumor angiogenesis might be the angiogenic switch. The hypothesis tested here is that TNF-alpha can modulate the INF-gamma production in macrophages in tumor environment as part of the tumor angiogenic switch.
The Cancer Center, Samsung Medical Center, School of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University, 50 IL-Won Dong, Kang-Nam Gu, 135-710, Seoul, Korea. hlee@smc.samsung.co.kr
