There is currently intense interest in angiogenesis, the multistep process
whereby new blood vessels are formed from pre-existing vasculature, This st
ems from the key role angiogenesis plays in many physiological and patholog
ical processes including wound healing, development of collateral circulati
on following an ischaemic episode, solid tumour growth and diabetic retinop
athy, Inhibition of angiogenesis is considered to be one of the most promis
ing of the potential, anti-cancer therapies because the ability for a tumou
r to grow beyond a few millimetres in size is directly related to its abili
ty to induce angiogenesis, So an improved understanding of how this is achi
eved and the ability to screen for compounds that could inhibit angiogenesi
s may lead to more effective therapies (for a review, see ref, 1), We have
thus developed a model of human angiogenesis that involves ail the critical
steps of the angiogenic process and can be adapted to screen many compound
s.