Angiogenesis

Angiogenic growth factors are naturally occurring compounds that stimulate blood vessel growth. In a normal, healthy human angiogenic growth factors are produced in balance with angiogenesis inhibitors and therefore there is no blood vessel growth. When growth factors are produced in excess of inhibitors, blood vessel growth will occur.

These growth processes are important for vascularization in wound healing and restoring blood flow to damaged tissue. They are also the root cause of many diseases and patthologies.

Endothelial cells line the interior of all blood vessels and are typically one of the most quiescent cell types in the body. These cells are derived from a common angioblast precursor and subsequently develop organ specific properties. Although embryonic endothelial cells exhibit much heterogeneity within and between organs, multiple proteins expressed by endothelial cells can be used to distinguish these cells from other cell types in the body. Differentiation of endothelial cells is governed by several factors, including the immediate micro-environment, interactions with surrounding cells, and the local release of cytokines and growth factors

These belong to the broad category of cytokines and chemokines. The related proteins play a role in growth, differentiation, and activation functions that regulate and determine the nature of immune responses and control immune cell trafficking and the cellular arrangement of immune organs. Which cytokines are produced in response to an immune insult determines initially whether an immune response develops and subsequently whether that response is cytotoxic, humoral, cell-mediated, or allergic.

Intracellular signaling pathways direct endothelial cell activities and ultimately promote or inhibit angiogenesis

Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of zinc metalloendopeptidases secreted by cells, and are responsible for much of the turnover of matrix components. They are produced as zymogens, with a signal sequence and propeptide segment that must be removed during activation. In general, This signal sequence and propeptide plus a catalytic domain (containing the highly conserved zinc binding site) characterizes the structure of the MMPs.

MMPs are considered to play an important role in wound healing, apoptosis, bone elongation, embryo development, uterine involution, angiogenesis and tissue remodeling, and in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, malignant gliomas, lupus, arthritis, periodontis, glumerulonephritis, atherosclerosis, tissue ulceration, and in cancer cell invasion and metastasis.

The Other Angiogenesis Research Antibodies 

Semaphorins are a class of secreted and membrane proteins that act as axonal growth cone guidance molecules. They primarily act as short-range inhibitory signals and signal through multimeric receptor complexes. They are usually cues to deflect axons from inappropriate regions, especially important in neural system development. The major class of proteins that act as their receptors are called plexins.

Two distinct transmembrane receptor families have been identified as Semaphorin receptors. Neuropilins provide binding specificity for the class 3 Semaphorins, whereas Plexins, which also contain a Sema domain serve as signaling partners for class 3 Semaphorins and as functional receptors for transmembrane Semaphorins.

Wnt proteins are key regulators of embryonic development. Many receptors and inhibitors influence the Wnt-signaling pathway to ultimately regulate beta-Catenin stability and availability. Understanding Wnt and beta-Catenin signaling and the role of their antagonists (including Frizzled proteins) is important to elucidating the events controlling stem cell organization and maintenance, embryonic development, tissue differentiation, cell adhesion and migration, as well as tumorigenesis and cancer induction and progression.