Angiogenesis — Retrospect and outlook

The process of angiogenesis, the growth of capillary blood vessels, is fundamental to reproduction, development and repair. Under these conditions, angiogenesis is highly regulated and of short duration. In many pathological states, this regulation is deranged so that the disease itself is driven by persistent, unabated neovascularization. Thus, tumor growth and metastasis are angiogenesis-dependent and a wide variety of non-neoplastic diseases are dominated by uncontrolled angiogenesis. These “angiogenic diseases” include arthritis, psoriasis, hemangiomas, and many types of ocular neovascularization, to name but a few. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.