MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR MECHANISMS OF ANGIOGENESIS IN PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS

: In normal conditions vascular system is in equilibrium, the processes of angiogenesis and vascular regression are precisely regulated. The mechanisms underlying the cardiovascular and cancer diseases are the insufficient or excessive angiogenesis, correspondingly. Understanding the mechanisms of angiogenesis is necessary for the development of new approaches to cure these diseases. The fundamental knowledge of the vascular growth and maturation mechanisms formed the basis for the strategy of «therapeutic angiogenesis», which is one of the rapidly developing technologies in regenerative medicine in the world. The strategy is based on the stimulation of blood vessel growth and remodeling in ischemic tissues via administration of recombinant angiogenic factors or genetic constructs for their expression. The same knowledge of the mechanisms of angiogenesis is necessary in the development of new drugs aimed at inhibiting the vascular growth in excessive or aberrant angiogenesis, which escapes the physiological control in various diseases. Herein we review the fundamental molecular and cellular mechanisms of regulation of blood vessel initiation, growth, and stabilization in normal and pathological conditions.