Regulation of angiogenesis and tumor growth by p110 alpha and AKT1 via VEGF expression

Recent studies demonstrate that PI3K activation and PTEN mutation are frequently found in many human cancer cells and tissues. However, the mechanism of PI3K signaling in human cancer tumorigenesis remains to be elucidated. In this study we specifically downregulated p110 alpha expression in ovarian cancer cells using siRNA interference. We found that p110 alpha downregulation greatly decreased ovarian tumor growth and angiogenesis, and that p110 alpha siRNA inhibited VEGF expression through decreasing hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha expression in both ovarian cancer cells and tumor tissues. To determine the downstream targets of PI3K in regulating tumor growth and angiogenesis, we find that AKT1 is a major downstream mediator for regulating tumor growth, angiogenesis, and VEGF expression. These data show that p110 alpha and AKT1 play an important role in tumor growth by inducing angiogenesis and by increasing HIF-1 alpha and VEGF expression. This work provides a better understanding of the molecular mechanism of human cancer induced by the activation of PI3K signaling.