Angiogenesis as therapeutic target has emerged since early works by Judah Folkman, yet his “holy grail” was inhibiting vascular growth to block tumor nutrition. However, in modern biomedicine, “therapeutic angiogenesis” became a large field focusing on stimulation of blood vessel growth for ischemia relief to reduce its detrimental effects in the tissues. In this review, we introduce basic principles of tissue vascularization in response to ischemia exploited in this field. An overview of recent status in therapeutic angiogenesis is given with introduction to emerging technologies, including gene therapy, genetic modification of cells ex vivo and tissue engineering.
Part of the book: Physiologic and Pathologic Angiogenesis