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Significance of endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) for tumorigenesis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC): possible marker of tumor progression and neovascularization?

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Clinical Oral Investigations Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 23 April 2016

Abstract

Objectives

Angiogenesis and neovascularisation plays a crucial role for tumorigenesis and tumor progression in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The aim of our study was to investigate the neovascularization capacity by endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) in tumor patient as a possible predictor for tumor progression and tumor stage.

Materials and methods

Therefore, we investigated the cell number and biologic activity by cell migration and colony-forming ability of EPC. Cells were isolated from the peripheral venous blood of 79 patients who suffer HNSCC in different stages of disease. Thirty-three healthy individuals served as the control group.

Results

Significantly increased biological activities were reflected by expression of the migration rate (1027 ± 1510) in comparison to the control group (632 ± 269) and the clonal potency measured by colony-forming unit (CFU) (tumor patients (19.7 ± 12.3) vs. control group (10.84 ± 4.8)). To determine whether or not EPC number can be used as a valid prognostic marker for clinical outcome of tumor patients, we furthermore compared a “high EPC-number-subgroup” (HI) with a “low EPC-number-subgroup” (LO) in a Kaplan-Meier survival curve. The HI-subgroup shows herein clearly a worse outcome.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate a possible pathway for EPC to play a critical role in the vasculogenesis and consequently in the progression of HNSCC.

Clinical Relevance.

Our findings could serve as possible predictors for the neovascularisation potential in HNSCC tumor patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Mainz, Augustusplatz 2, 55131, Mainz, Germany

    Thomas Ziebart, Sebastian Blatt, Christian Günther, Andreas Pabst & Keyvan Sagheb

  2. Department of Oral Surgery, Oral Radiology and Oral Medicine, School of Dental Medicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Thomas Ziebart, Sebastian Kühl & Thomas Lambrecht

  3. Institute of Physiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany

    Nadine Völxen

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  1. Thomas Ziebart
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas Ziebart.

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Funding

The study was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), GZ: ZI 1461/2–1 and foundation tumor research head and neck (Stiftung Tumorforschung Kopf-Hals), Wiesbaden, Germany.

Conflict of Interest

The authors of the article declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The local ethics committee (Landesärztekammer Rheinland-Pfalz) approved the following experiments (Ethikvotum 837.837.11 (7924)). This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00784-016-1833-0.

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Ziebart, T., Blatt, S., Günther, C. et al. Significance of endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) for tumorigenesis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC): possible marker of tumor progression and neovascularization?. Clin Oral Invest 20, 2293–2300 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-016-1785-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-016-1785-4

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