@article{65071cd3f07046c3a12852f8a251088e,
title = "Small GTPase R-Ras Regulates Integrity and Functionality of Tumor Blood Vessels",
abstract = "We show that R-Ras, a small GTPase of the Ras family, is essential for the establishment of mature, functional blood vessels in tumors. The genetic disruption of R-Ras severely impaired the maturation processes of tumor vessels in mice. Conversely, the gain of function of R-Ras improved vessel structure and blood perfusion and blocked plasma leakage by enhanced endothelial barrier function and pericyte association with nascent blood vessels. Thus, R-Ras promotes normalization of the tumor vasculature. These findings identify R-Ras as a critical regulator of vessel integrity and function during tumor vascularization.",
author = "Junko Sawada and Takeo Urakami and Fangfei Li and Akane Urakami and Weiquan Zhu and Minoru Fukuda and Li, {Dean Y.} and Erkki Ruoslahti and Masanobu Komatsu",
note = "Funding Information: Anti-NG2 antibody was a gift from Dr. William Stallcup of SBMRI. The antibody for phospho-specific VE-cadherin Ser 665 was a gift from Drs. Silvio Gutkind and Julie Garvard of NIH. We thank Drs. Sara Courtneidge and Sunyoung Lee for their advices on the manuscript. Scanning electron microscopy was done at Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center, University of Central Florida. Histological preparations and fluorescence microscopy were done at the Histology and Imaging core facilities of SBMRI and University of Alabama at Birmingham. RT-qPCR was done at the Analytical Genomics Core of SBMRI. This work was supported by National Cancer Institute Grants CA125255, CA030199, and CA104898, American Cancer Society Grant IRG6000147, Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program 1BD11-34213, the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation Fellowship Award, and departmental funds provided by the Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and by SBMRI. ",
year = "2012",
month = aug,
day = "14",
doi = "10.1016/j.ccr.2012.06.013",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "22",
pages = "235--249",
journal = "Cancer Cell",
issn = "1535-6108",
publisher = "Cell Press",
number = "2",
}