Human thrombospondin 2 inhibits proliferation of microvascular endothelial cells

This study was performed to characterize human thrombospondin 2 (TSP2). TSP2 has recently attracted attention as an endogenous negative regulator of angiogenesis in tumorigenesis. We cloned and transfected human TSP2 cDNA into the human colon cancer cell line SW-480. Stable transfectants (TSP2-1, TSP2-6) overexpressing TSP2 were established. Growth characteristics of TSP2-transfectants were investigated in vitro and in vivo. TSP2-transfectants showed similar growth properties to vector-transfectants and wild-type SW-480 cells. The overexpression of transfected human TSP2 cDNA did not affect proliferation of SW-480 cells. When the conditioned media of TSP2-transfectants were added to cultures of bovine pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (BPMEC), the BPMEC proliferation was significantly inhibited. These results suggested that human TSP2 is a potential inhibitor of angiogenesis.