An in vivo angiogenesis assay to study positive and negative regulators of neovascularization

The formation of new blood vessels from existing blood vessels has been referred to as angiogenesis to distinguish the process from de novo embryonic vessel formation or vasculogenesis (1). This chapter will describe an in vivo assay to measure angiogenesis. There are several important reasons to study and measure angiogenesis in vascular disease. First, it is necessary to try to understand proliferative angiogenesis as it occurs in tumors and in diabetic complications and devise strategies to inhibit it. Second, there is intense interest in improving angiogenesis after ischemia or in chronic wounds (2). Third, many potential modulators of angiogenesis need to be evaluated to determine their effects on blood vessel development.