College of Engineering

Zeal Jinwala

College of Arts & Sciences

Biological Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Alisa Morss Clyne

Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics

Dr. Swathi Swaminathan Co-Mentor

Investigating the effects of two metabolic inhibitors on Angiogenesis

Angiogenesis, the process of new blood vessel formation from existing blood vessel, is thought to be a driving factor in tumor growth. Endothelial cells, which line the interior surface of blood vessels, play a leading role in angiogenesis through migration, and proliferation. Recent studies have shown that endothelial cell metabolic activity is essential to angiogenesis. We decided to test two metabolic inhibitors, namely 3PO and OGTi, in an endothelial tube formation assay to determine their effects on angiogenesis. 3PO is known to inhibit glycolytic activity, and OGTi decreases the protein O-GlcNAcylation through the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway. Endothelial cells were seeded on Matrigel coated 8-chambered cassettes in basal media. After five hours, the cassettes were treated with the peptides in varying concentrations and two wells were set as controls. Endothelial network formation was imaged after 24 and 48 hours using a phase contrast microscope and was quantified using the Angiogenesis Analyzer plugin in ImageJ software. The results we obtained did not show any significant change in endothelial tube formation with the inhibitors. In the future, we will try the same inhibitors in an endothelial spheroid assay to study angiogenesis in a 3-D model.