内皮细胞过度增殖引起的病理性血管生成是肿瘤、类风湿性关节炎等发病的关键环节。内皮细胞增殖由血管内皮细胞生长因子等促血管生成因子提供促增殖信号,而新近发现的多种内皮增殖抑制因子,如血管内皮抑素、血管抑素、血小板反应蛋白-1、微囊蛋白1、某些microRNAs和某些抑癌基因等,则通过抑制促增殖信号、调节细胞周期、诱导细胞凋亡等途径下调内皮细胞的增殖及血管生成。内皮增殖抑制因子可望成为病理性血管生成防治的新靶点。
Pathological angiogenesis induced by excessive proliferation of endothelial cells is a crucial step in the progression of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. The pro-proliferation signals for the proliferation of endothelial cells are provided by vascular endothelial growth factor as well as other growth factors. On the contrary, several inhibitory factors were found recently, including endostatin, angiostatin, thrombospondin-1, caveolin-1, some microRNAs and some anti-oncogenes. These inhibitory factors down-regulate proliferation and angiogenesis of the endothelial cells through suppressing pro-proliferation signals, modulating cell cycle and inducing apoptosis of endothelial cells. These inhibitory factors are emerging as novel targets for the therapy of pathological angiogenesis.