Promotion of angiogenesis through proangiogenic factors

The "promotion of angiogenesis through proangiogenic factors" refers not to a single canonical target, but to the set of signaling pathways and effector molecules that stimulate the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing vasculature, a process critical for development, wound healing, and pathological events such as tumor growth and diabetic retinopathy. This process is mainly driven by the coordinated action of *proangiogenic factors*—the most notable of which include vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fibroblast growth factors (FGFs, especially FGF-2), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), angiopoietins (Ang1, Ang2), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β)[1][2][4][5][6]. These factors act through their respective receptors (e.g., VEGFRs, FGFRs, PDGFR, Tie2, etc.), activating downstream signaling cascades that induce endothelial cell proliferation, migration, survival, and extracellular matrix remodeling, ultimately creating new functional blood vessels[1][4][6]. In cancer, persistent and unregulated production of these factors leads to continuous, abnormal vessel growth sustaining tumor growth and metastasis[3][4][5]. Proangiogenic signaling is a crucial target for anti-cancer therapies (such as bevacizumab, a VEGF inhibitor) and for therapeutic angiogenesis in ischemic or wound-healing defects, but the term itself does not denote a druggable molecular entity. Rather, pharmacological intervention usually targets individual molecular actors within these pathways (e.g., VEGF or VEGFR), for which the specific details should be referenced under each factor or receptor’s canonical name[6][4][1][7]. This entry is considered incorrect as a therapeutic or molecular "target" because it describes a broad functional process, not a discrete, canonically-accepted molecular target suitable for structured biomedical databases. The appropriate information would instead be under entries for specific proangiogenic molecules (e.g., vascular endothelial growth factor A, fibroblast growth factor 2, etc.).

Other names

angiogenesis promotionproangiogenic signaling