Jo´ zef Dulak • Alicja Jo´ zkowicz • Agnieszka Łoboda
Editors
2013
There is no vertebrate life without blood vessels and blood circulation. Therefore, formation of blood vessels is strictly connected with the continuous well-being of human during development and adult life, and finally, disturbed—impaired or exaggerated—angiogenesis leads to development or aggravation of disease. Understanding the mechanisms of physiological and pathological vascularization is thus really a matter of life and death. The discoveries of the last 25 years have identified plethora of angiogenic mediators including transcription factors, growth factors, cytokines, or extracellular matrix components. Recently, numerous studies have highlighted the role of specific microRNAs in modulating angiogenic signaling.