Atypical E2Fs inhibit tumor angiogenesis.

Abstract

Atypical E2F transcription factors (E2F7 and E2F8) function as key regulators of cell cycle progression and their inactivation leads to spontaneous cancer formation in mice. However, the mechanism of the tumor suppressor functions of E2F7/8 remain obscure. In this study we discovered that atypical E2Fs control tumor angiogenesis, one of the hallmarks of cancer. We genetically inactivated atypical E2Fs in epithelial and mesenchymal neoplasm and analyzed blood vessel formation in three different animal models of cancer. Tumor formation was either induced by application of 7,12-Dimethylbenz(a)anthracene/12-O-Tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate or by Myc/Ras overexpression. To our surprise, atypical..