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Commentary
Nature Medicine 8, 913 - 917 (2002)
doi:10.1038/nm0902-913
Endocrine gland–derived VEGF and the emerging hypothesis of organ-specific regulation of angiogenesis
Jennifer LeCouter1, Rui Lin1 & Napoleone Ferrara1
- Department of Molecular Oncology, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA e-mail: nf@gene.com
Abstract
The diversity in growth and morphological characteristics among endothelial cells in different normal tissues and tumors has been long recognized. Yet there has been no clear molecular explanation for such diversity at the level of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) and other established regulators of angiogenesis that are expressed widely and show little tissue selectivity in their angiogenic properties. Endocrine gland–derived VEGF represents the first example of a tissue-specific angiogenic factor, likely to be followed by others.
The cardiovascular system is the first organ system to develop and reach a functional state in an embryo1. 'Vasculogenesis', the in situ differentiation of endothelial-cell precursors, and 'angiogenesis', the growth from the endothelium of existing vessels, cooperate in achieving the mature vasculature2.
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