Integrins in vascular development

In recent years, there has been a sustained interest in vascularization pro cesses. Much, if not all, of the work has included the concept of new vesse l morphogenesis. Surprisingly, most of the work has not addressed developme ntal mechanisms directly, but rather as an offshoot of a disease process, w ound healing process, or from the perspective of inducing vessels in an isc hemic site. One theme has dominated the various studies on capillary or end othelial tube morphogenesis-integrin-mediated cell behavior. Integrin biolo gy impacts virtually every known step of nascent vessel formation. In this review article, we attempted to summarize key findings from the viewpoint o f developmental biologists/morphologists. We also attempted to summarize an d contrast data obtained using integrin gene ablation approaches in mice wi th other experimental systems. It is hoped this review will provide a disti nct cell biological perspective to vascular scientists from the clinical, m olecular, and tissue engineering communities.