Interleukin 7 (IL-7) is known to promote lymphangiogenesis. To study the relationship between IL-7 and the lymphangiogenesis in lung cancer cells xenograft tumors, we investigated how IL-7 regulates lymphangiogenesis by Quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, co-immunoprecipitation, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and immunohistochemistry methods. We found that, in lung cancer cells xenograft tumors IL-7/IL-7 receptor (IL-7R) increase the expression of VEGF-D and lymphangiogenesis, induce c-Fos and c-Jun heterodimer formation, and enhance c-Fos/c-Jun DNA binding activity to regulate VEGF-D. Taken together, our results provided evidence that IL-7/IL-7R induce VEGF-D upregulation and promote lymphangiogenesis via c-Fos/c-Jun pathway in lung cancer.
Keywords: in vivo; interleukin 7; interleukin 7 receptor; lung cancer; lymphangiogenesis.
© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.