E H, L A
Department of Endocrinology Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, UK.
Methods Mol Med. 2001;57:115-21. doi: 10.1385/1-59259-136-1:115.
Angiogenesis describes the development of new vessels from existing blood vessels and is a crucial physiological process involved in embryo development, wound healing, and the female reproductive cycle. However, angiogenesis has also been shown to be required for tumor growth and metastasis (1). On the basis of experiments showing that tumors implanted into isolated perfused organs failed to develop whereas the same tumors implanted within 6 mm of blood vessels induced angiogenesis, grew, and metastasized (2,3), Folkman proposed that solid tumors are dependent on angiogenesis for growth beyond a few millimeters in size, and that increase in tumor diameter required a corresponding increase in vascularization (4). It is becoming clear that there is a complex balance between pro-angiogenic growth factors and endogenous inhibitors that determine the final angiogenic phenotype (5).
血管生成描述了从现有血管发育出新血管的过程，是胚胎发育、伤口愈合和女性生殖周期中涉及的关键生理过程。然而，血管生成也已被证明是肿瘤生长和转移所必需的(1)。基于实验表明，植入孤立灌注器官的肿瘤无法生长，而植入距离血管6毫米以内的相同肿瘤则会诱导血管生成、生长和转移(2,3)，福克曼提出实体瘤在大小超过几毫米后其生长依赖于血管生成，并且肿瘤直径的增加需要相应的血管化增加(4)。越来越清楚的是，促血管生成生长因子和内源性抑制剂之间存在复杂的平衡，这决定了最终的血管生成表型(5)。
