Growth factors in embryogenesis

The growing appreciation that embryonic material is a rich source of growth factors underlies increasing interest in the role of growth factors in early development. These developments have arisen from a desire to understand fundamental embryological processes; the control of differentiation and the generation of form. One expectation of this research is the discovery of new forms of regulatory agent with novel biological and therapeutic potential. Furthermore, there is a direct relationship between growth and differentiation processes in early development and pathological processes in the adult; for example, the behaviour of tumour cells has historically been compared to that of embryonic cells and regenerative processes in the adult such as angiogenesis, wound healing and fracture repair may be considered to recapitulate events that occur in the normal course of embryogenesis. An understanding of the mechanisms that underlie these fundamental processes in normal development may therefore lead to a concomitant understanding of related pathological events in the adult.