Which vessels are leaky

This has led to eye diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy becoming more common. In both these eye diseases, new blood vessels grow in the retina — the light-sensitive part of the eye — to bring oxygen and nutrients to the tissue. However, these new blood vessels are leaky and allow molecules to leave the bloodstream and enter the retinal tissue.

The leaky blood supply also reduces the amount of oxygen that gets to the tissue, resulting in further damage to the retina. When tissues experience low levels of oxygen, cells start making a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor or VEGF for short. Whilst this protein is important for helping form new blood vessels, it also makes these vessels leaky.

Current treatments for age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy decrease swelling in the eye by blocking the action of VEGF. Clinical applications of angiogenic growth factors and their inhibitors. Baumgartner, I. Constitutive expression of phVEGF after intramuscular gene transfer promotes collateral vessel development in patients with critical limb ischemia.

Circulation 97 , — Melder, R. During angiogenesis, vascular endothelial growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor regulate natural killer cell adhesion to tumor endothelium. Gale, N. Growth factors acting via endothelial cell-specific receptor tyrosine kinases: VEGFs, angiopoietins and ephrins in vascular development.

Genes Dev. Yuan, F. Vascular permeability and microcirculation of gliomas and mammary carcinomas transplanted in rat and mouse cranial windows. Download references. We thank D. Fukumura, C. Mouta Carreira, M. Detmar, B. Seed, B. Fenton and J.

Samson for their input. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Reprints and Permissions. Jain, R. Leaky vessels? Call Ang1!. Nat Med 6, — Download citation. Issue Date : February Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:.

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. Leaky vessels alone can lead to major health problems, and this new pathway may provide insights into how it occurs.

In addition, some newer cancer therapeutics target the Notch pathway in an effort to block the overgrowth of cells. By blocking the entire Notch pathway, these drugs may also be inhibiting the heretofore unknown function of sealing blood vessel walls, causing them to leak.

Indeed, these drugs have reported such side effects, and until now, clinicians have been at a loss to explain why this occurs. Polacheck and Kutys may have found the answer. Liz Sheeley Profile. Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation.

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