Increased capillary endothelial cell protease activity in response to angiogenic stimuli in vitro.

Bovine capillary endothelial (BCE) cells produce increased amounts of the proteases plasminogen activator (PA) and latent collagenase when cultured in the presence of the following preparations which are known to contain angiogenic activities: bovine retinal extract, mouse adipocyte conditioned medium, and human hepatoma cell lysate. These preparations stimulated both BCE cell PA and collagenase activities in a dose-dependent manner. Both activities were increased to about the same level by these preparations as by the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate. Mitogens that are not angiogenic, such as insulin, epidermal and fibroblast growth factors, and endothelial cell growth supplement, had no effect on BCE cell PA and collagenase activities. Two of the angiogenic preparations (retinal extract and mouse adipocyte-conditioned medium) had no effect on PA activity in endothelial cells derived from bovine aortae (BAE cells). The angiogenic preparations had little (human hepatoma cell lysate, mouse adipocyte-conditioned medium) or no (bovine retinal extract) effect on BAE cell collagenase activities. In the bovine system, the induction of high levels of both PA and collagenase activities by angiogenic preparations is limited to capillary endothelial cells.