Investigation of inhibitory effects on EPC-mediated neovascularization by different bisphosphonates for cancer therapy.

Bisphosphonates (BPs) are potent drugs, used in metastatic cancer-like prostate or breast carcinoma. In recent studies, besides reduced bone remodeling, influences on angiogenesis and neovascularization were reported. Since BPs have the tendency to accumulate in the bones, the biological effect of various nitrogen- and non-nitrogen BPs on endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) that originated from bone marrow and mobilized under physiological and pathophysiological conditions, such as tumor neovascularization, was investigated. EPCs subsequent to 72-h treatment with different concentrations of bisphosphonates comprised the non-nitrogen-containing BP clodronate and the nitrogen-containing BPs i…