The growth of new blood vessels is called angiogenesis. In recent years, scientists have focused considerable attention on drugs and natural molecules in the body that promote or inhibit angiogenesis. Pro-angiogenesis treatments also could help people when leg blood vessels are obstructed by the fatty deposits of atherosclerosis. Many people now lose their legs due to poor circulation caused by atherosclerosis. In heart disease, the goal is to grow new blood vessels to the heart as a way to route blood around arteries choked by fatty deposits that prevent the heart from getting enough oxygen-rich blood.
Heart attacks occur when the heart is deprived of blood.
How it does that is not yet clear. Isner and his colleagues wanted to determine if ACE inhibitors have a protective effect on the thin layer of cells that lines blood vessels. These endothelial cells play a major role in new vessel growth. A group of animals that received no treatment served as the comparison to the treated group. Evidence of new vessel growth was obtained on the 10th and 40th days of the experiment.