Clinical manipulation of angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing vasculature) is of interest to treat diseases such as cancer and ischemic tissue where it is not properly regulated. Several treatments targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)…
Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently metastasizes to the omentum, a process that requires pro-angiogenic activation of local microvascular endothelial cells (ECs) by tumour-secreted factors. We have previously shown that ovarian cancer cells secrete factors, other than vascular …
Obesity affects about 520 million people world-wide and more recently studies have shown that fat cells produce proteins called adipokines which have various influences on the human metabolism and has helped to change the perspectives of researchers on the concept of the adipose…
Elevated levels of the inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6, IL-6, have been linked with poor prognosis in ovarian cancer patients by influencing tumour growth, invasion, angiogenesis and chemo-resistance. A clinical trial conducted in parallel with pre-clinical studies showed an…
Atheromas contain hypoxic areas which upregulate HIF1α expression, promoting angiogenesis and unstable lesion formation. Simvastatin stabilises atheromas through preventing rupture and neovascularisation. Atheromas express matrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP14) which degrades matri…
ID proteins are naturally occurring dominant negative HLH-transcription factors that are highly expressed during development but generally not expressed in adult tissue except for selected cell types and some stem cells. Also, aberrant expression occurs in a number of cancers. W…
We have developed a series of novel techniques, adapted from the field of tumor biology, to quantify vascular structure and function and to explore the role of Angiotensin (Ang) II receptor AT1 in cardiac remodeling post myocardial infarction (MI). We examined the scar neovascul…