U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, 5 Department of Radiation TGF-beta inhibitor Oncology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Hypoxia is a common feature of tumors that contributes to malignancy and treatment resistance. The basis for these effects derives in part from a transcriptional response mediated by the HIF family of transcription factors. Hypoxia also has been shown to activate the unfolded protein response (UPR) which induces a protective response against hypoxia induced cell death both in vitro and in xenografts in vivo. Here we show that the protective effect of the

UPR during hypoxia is mediated through regulation of autophagy. We discovered that the UPR induces the transcription of the essential autophagy genes LC3B and ATG5 during hypoxia through its ability to regulate the transcription factors ATF4 and CHOP respectively. LC3B and ATG5 are not required for the initiation of autophagy, but instead BKM120 mediate phagophore expansion and formation of the autophagosome. Transcriptional induction of LC3B during hypoxia functions to replenish LC3B protein levels which are normally turned over during the process of autophagy, and thus allow autophagy to continue during extended hypoxic exposures. We show that cells engineered with various defects in PERK/UPR signalling fail to transcriptionally induce LC3B and thus become rapidly depleted

of LC3B protein during hypoxia. Activation of autophagy and induction of LC3B was also observed in hypoxic areas of tumor xenografts derived from cell lines and in a series of 12 human head and neck xenografts established directly from tumors. Importantly, pharmacological inhibition of autophagy sensitized cells to hypoxic exposure,

reduced the viable fraction of hypoxia in xenografts, and sensitized tumors to irradiation. These data suggest that regulation of autophagy via the UPR facilitates cell survival during hypoxia and that this pathway is an interesting therapeutic target in combination with radiotherapy. O138 Molecular and Cellular Characterization of The Brain Tumor VAV2 Microenvironment with Focus on Peritumoral Brain Swelling Nic Savaskan 1 , Ilker Y. Eyüpoglu2 1 Institute of Cell Biology & Neurobiology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2 Department of Neurosurgery, University of Erlangen-Nurenberg, Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany Brain edema is a hallmark of human malignant brain tumors and contributes to the clinical course and outcome of brain tumor patients. The so-called peritumoral edema or brain swelling imposes in T2-weighted MR scans as high intensity areas surrounding the bulk tumor mass. The mechanisms of this increased fluid attraction and the cellular composition of the microenvironment are only partially understood.