Chemokines and Angiogenesis

Angiogenesis is the process of new blood vessel growth and is a critical biological process under both physiologic and pathologic conditions. Angiogenesis can occur under physiologic conditions that include embryogenesis and the ovarian/menstrual cycle. In contrast, pathologic angiogenesis is associated with chronic inflammation/chronic fibroproliferative disorders and tumorigenesis of cancer. Similarly, aberrant angiogenesis associated with chronic inflammation/fibroproliferative disorders is analogous to neovascularization of tumorigenesis of cancer. Net angiogenesis is determined by a balance in the expression of angiogenic compared with angiostatic factors. CXC chemokines are heparin-binding proteins that display unique disparate roles in the regulation of angiogenesis. Based on their structure, CXC chemokines can be divided into two groups that either promote or inhibit angiogenesis, and they are therefore uniquely placed to regulate net angiogenesis in both physiologic and pathologic conditions.