Angiogenic signal during cardiac repair

Despite significant advances in myocardial revascularization and reperfusion, coronary artery disease and subsequently myocardial infarction, are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Strategies which improve the myocardial substrate during and following a myocardial infarction-such as the regrowth of functional blood vessels to the ischemic myocardium would be of great clinical importance. This review article attempts to address this important clinical issue through identifying potential signalling mechanisms by various mode of preconditioning that cause angiogenesis. (Mol Cell Biochem 264: 13–23, 2004)