Renal budding (left) increases when endostatin is inhibited (right).

Karihaloo/NAS

Anew study identifies a possible new function for endostatin, the potential cancer-killer that checks blood vessel growth.Within the developing kidney, endostatin may help regulate the branching that establishes the network of urine-collecting tubules.

Cells in the ureteric bud divide and change shape to form the plumbing system of the kidney. Because endostatin inhibits blood vessel formation, Lloyd Cantley (Yale University, New Haven, CT) and colleagues suspected that it might also limit the formation of new tubules within the ureteric bud. To find out, they grew ureteric bud tissue in culture, adding exogenous endostatin or blocking endogenous production.

The results were striking. “Endostatin has a profound effect on branching,” says Cantley. The authors found that ureteric bud tissue branches excessively if doused with an anti- endostatin antibody. Buds treated with antibody, for instance, sprouted 75% more...

The Rockefeller University Press
2001
The Rockefeller University Press
2001
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