Access

Review

Nature 436, 193-200 (14 July 2005) | doi:10.1038/nature03875

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

More science jobs
Post a job for free

Common mechanisms of nerve and blood vessel wiring

Peter Carmeliet1 & Marc Tessier-Lavigne2

Top

Blood vessels and nerve fibres course throughout the body in an orderly pattern, often alongside one another. Although superficially distinct, the mechanisms involved in wiring neural and vascular networks seem to share some deep similarities. The discovery of key axon guidance molecules over the past decade has shown that axons are guided to their targets by finely tuned codes of attractive and repulsive cues, and recent studies reveal that these cues also help blood vessels to navigate to their targets. Parallels have also emerged between the actions of growth factors that direct angiogenic sprouting and those that regulate axon terminal arborization.

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Robo is Abl to block N-Cadherin function

Nature Cell Biology News and Views (01 Oct 2002)

Semaphorins: repulsive guidance molecules show their attractive side

Nature Neuroscience News and Views (01 Sep 1999)

See all 7 matches for News And Views

RESEARCH

The netrin receptor UNC5B mediates guidance events controlling morphogenesis of the vascular system

Nature Article (11 Nov 2004)

Shared receptors in axon guidance: SAX-3/Robo signals via UNC-34/Enabled and a Netrin-independent UNC-40/DCC function

Nature Neuroscience Article (01 Nov 2002)

See all 51 matches for Research