ANGIOGEN.ppt

In addition to its role in tumors, angiogenesis occurs normally in the human body at specific times in development and growth. For example, a developing child in a mother’s womb must create the vast network of arteries, veins, and capillaries that are found in the human body. A process called vasculogenesis creates the primary network of vascular endothelial cells that will become major blood vessels. Later on, angiogenesis remodels this network into the small new blood vessels or capillaries that complete the child’s circulatory system. Proliferation of new blood vessels also takes place in adults, although it is a relatively infrequent event. In women, angiogenesis is active a few days each month as new blood vessels form in the lining of the uterus during the menstrual cycle. Also, angiogenesis is necessary for the repair or regeneration of tissue during wound healing. The walls of blood vessels are formed by vascular endothelial cells. These cells rarely divide, doing so only about once every 3 years on average. However, when the situation requires it, angiogenesis can stimulate them to divide. Angiogenesis is regulated by both activator and inhibitor molecules. Normally, the inhibitors predominate, blocking growth. Should a need for new blood vessels arise, angiogenesis activators increase in number and inhibitors decrease. This prompts the growth and division of vascular endothelial cells and, ultimately, the formation of new blood vessels. Before the 1960s, cancer researchers believed that the blood supply reached tumors simply because pre-existing blood vessels dilated. But later experiments showed that angiogenesis--the growth of the new blood vessels--is necessary for cancerous tumors to keep growing and spreading. In early experiments, researchers asked whether cancer growth requires angiogenesis. Scientists removed a cancerous tumor from a laboratory animal and injected some of the cancer cells into a normal organ removed from the same strain of animal.