[Molecular pathogenesis of ocular vascular disease--anti-angiogenesis as a therapeutic concept]

Retinopathy of prematurity, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration are the most common blinding disease in the western world during childhood, in adults, and in the elderly patient. All three diseases have a vascular damage in common that leads to a pathological angiogenesis. The basic mechanisms include complex interactions between endothelial cells, pericytes, and matrix molecules. We know the "vocabulary" and try to understand the regulation of physiological and pathological angiogenesis. Building upon this knowledge, we are now, with the advent of clinically available vascular endothelial growth factors, for the first time able to therapeutically modulate angiogenesis.