title: Taming of the wild vessel: promoting vessel stabilization for safe therapeutic angiogenesis.
abstract: VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) is the master regulator of blood vessel growth. However, it displayed substantial limitations when delivered as a single gene to restore blood flow in ischaemic conditions. Indeed, uncontrolled VEGF expression can easily induce aberrant vascular structures, and short-term expression leads to unstable vessels. Targeting the second stage of the angiogenic process, i.e. vascular maturation, is an attractive strategy to induce stable and functional vessels for therapeutic angiogenesis. The present review discusses the limitations of VEGF-based gene therapy, briefly summarizes the current knowledge of the molecular and cellular regulation of vascular maturation, and describes recent pre-clinical evidence on how the maturation stage could be targeted to achieve therapeutic angiogenesis.
authors: Cell and Gene Therapy, Department of Biomedicine, Basel University Hospital, Hebelstrasse 20, Basel, CH-4031, Switzerland.
authors: Silvia
authors: S
authors: Reginato
authors: Roberto
authors: R
authors: Gianni-Barrera
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Banfi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000254:growth & development*; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D006801:Humans; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic; D020286:Pericytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000235:genetics / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A