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Angiogenesis is the development of new blood vessels from an existing vascular bed. Normal vascular proliferation occurs only during embryonic development, the female reproductive cycle and wound repair. By contrast, many pathological conditions (for example, cancer, atherosclerosis and diabetic retinopathy), are characterized by persistent, unregulated angiogenesis. Conversely, inadequate angiogenesis can lead to failure of ulcers to heal and myocardial infarction. Control of vascular development could permit new therapeutic approaches to these disorders. For example, several anti-angiogenic drugs are currently undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of cancer, whereas enhancement of angiogenesis by exogenous growth factors can prevent or limit the damage in chronic wounds and duodenal ulcers. Here Tai-Ping Fan, Rhys Jaggar and Roy Bicknell highlight recent achievements and discuss the prospects of receptor antagonists, enzyme inhibitors, tumour suppressor genes and vascular targeted approaches, especially that of gene therapy, in the future development of angiotherapy.

Screening of 84 primary human breast carcinomas for the mRNA expression of seven angiogenic polypeptides showed that the most commonly expressed and/or the most highly expressed when compared to normal breast tissue were vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor/thymidine Phosphorylase (PDECGF/TP)1. The neurokines midkine (MK) and pleiotrophin were also fairly commonly expressed in tumour but not normal tissue (unpublished data from this group and ref. 1).