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(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2009;29:622.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.

Brief Reviews

Developmental Biology in the Vasculature—Review Series

Mark W. Majesky

From the Carolina Cardiovascular Biology Center, and the Departments of Medicine and Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Correspondence to Mark W. Majesky, PhD, Departments of Medicine & Genetics, Carolina Cardiovascular Biology Center, MBRB-8200, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7126. E-mail mmajesky@med.unc.edu

Series Editor: Mark Majesky PhD

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

In this issue of the ATVB, we present a series of concise review articles on the development of blood and lymphatic vessels. These articles discuss the fundamental mechanisms at work to form and remodel the vascular system. They also address current issues and controversies in the field and propose new directions for future investigation.

The process of vascular development begins with formation of angioblasts and their assembly into a primitive vascular plexus. In a review of this process titled "The Opening Act: Vasculogenesis and the Origins of Circulation," Suk-Won Jin and Cam Patterson¹ discuss the interplay between predetermined genetic mechanisms for vasculogenesis and important epigenetic factors that modify these genetic pathways and shape the outcome of the process. In particular, the important roles played by hemodynamic forces and hypoxia-mediated responses for angioblast formation, differentiation and vascular plexus formation are examined. Once formed, nascent blood vessels require interactions between endothelial cells and mural cell partners to exchange essential survival factors and promote maturation responses in both cell types. This reciprocal signaling is responsive to blood flow–dependent shear forces acting on endothelial cells and requires the integration of multiple paracrine signaling pathways. In the article "Endothelial Mural Cell Signaling in Vascular Development and Angiogenesis," Christer Betsholtz and colleagues² discuss the individual factors that have been identified as important players in endothelial cell–mural cell interactions and address the question of how these factors interact to stabilize newly formed blood vessels and promote their differentiation and maturation.

The primitive vascular system formed in . . . [Full Text of this Article]