Therapeutic Angiogenesis Using Growth Factors: Current State and Prospects for Development

Therapeutic angiogenesis has been in use for treatment of ischemic diseases for about 15 years. During this period of successes and failures this field has accumulated a significant amount of published and ongoing surveys giving insights and raising new questions and problems. One of the most utilized methods for therapeutic angiogenesis suggests introduction of angiogenic growth factors (VEGF, bFGF, angiopoietin-1 etc.) into ischemic tissues. Still, there is a whole range of problems regarding the efficacy of therapeutic angiogenesis. These can be potentially circumvented by use of new delivery methods, development of combined approaches and use of more relevant pre-clinical animal models. Present review gives a brief analysis of crucial achievements and issues that has been recently raised in experimental and clinical studies focusing on therapeutic angiogenesis. Final part brings some possible directions for development that can give an opportunity to circumvent current obstacles and provide further development.