What is angiogenesis?

angiogenesis refers to the body's ability to grow and develop new blood vessels. This is a normal process that helps us recover from diseases, grow when we are children, and keep oxygen supply to the tissues at a desirable level. This is especially useful when we have any type of wound, such as cut or scratching, piercing or surgical wound. When the body is healthy, angiogenesis occurs and helps to restore the skin to health. During reproductive years, women also cause normal cycle of angiogenesis every month; The new blood vessels are the key to creating uterine lining, which is scraped per month during menstruation. The ON switch communicates that new blood vessels are needed and the growth factor chemicals in the body exceed inhibitors. When the inhibitor chemicals in the body exceed growth factors, the process of angiogenesis turns off.

In some diseases, angiogenesis may occur too often or not enough. For example, cancer can form too much blood vessels to develop which tagsCancer and help it metastasize. At the same time, abnormal tissue feeds, healthy tissue can die. Hospitals are often coded to produce more blood vessels, and important research in this area is trying to find ways to turn off this process. Other diseases where too many blood vessels can actually lead to tissue death include diseases such as diabetes, macular degeneration and rheumatoid arthritis.

Other diseases work on the contrary and prevent the development of new blood vessels. For example, most forms of heart disease significantly reduce chemical compounds that would stimulate new blood vessels to grow and replace patients. In the case of stroke, the failure of angiogenesis may result in significant tissue death in the brain, which can then affect function. Here again, medical scientists must find out a way to turn over the transition to "on" to help those who have a lack of new blood vessel growth.

So far, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have seven treatment of cancer therapyThe antiangiogenic and some stimulant results were obtained from their use to treat colorectal cancer, neck cancer, breast cancer and pancreatic cancer. Long -term studies on the effectiveness of these drugs will help reveal more about their advantages and possible problems. There are several angiogenic drugs (intended to stimulate blood vessel growth), which are studied as useful in the treatment of heart disease. The FDA has not yet approved them.

Some scientists compare our growing understanding of angiogenesis to the development of antibiotics and indicate that this area of ​​study can provide drugs for thousands of diseases, as many EITHER diseases accelerate or inhibit new blood vessel growth. They argue that the process is a common factor for most diseases and can lead us to much better ways to manage diseases in the future.