title: Bringing new life to damaged bone: the importance of angiogenesis in bone repair and regeneration.
abstract: Bone has the unique capacity to heal without the formation of a fibrous scar, likely because several of the cellular and molecular processes governing bone healing recapitulate the events during skeletal development. A critical component in bone healing is the timely appearance of blood vessels in the fracture callus. Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, is stimulated after fracture by the local production of numerous angiogenic growth factors. The fracture vasculature not only supplies oxygen and nutrients, but also stem cells able to differentiate into osteoblasts and in a later phase also the ions necessary for mineralization. This review provides a concise report of the regulation of angiogenesis by bone cells, its importance during bone healing and its possible therapeutic applications in bone tissue engineering. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Stem Cells and Bone".
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Prometheus, Division of Skeletal Tissue Engineering, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stegen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Prometheus, Division of Skeletal Tissue Engineering, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: van Gastel
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Prometheus, Division of Skeletal Tissue Engineering, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: geert.carmeliet@med.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Geert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carmeliet
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001861:Bone Regeneration / Q000187:drug effects; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D017102:Fracture Healing / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic / Q000187:drug effects; D010100:Oxygen / Q000494:pharmacology; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Angiogenesis; Bone healing; Fracture; Hypoxia; Tissue engineering; VEGF