Morphological Aspects of Tumor Vasculature

Abstract

Endothelial cells of mature, quiescent vessels are characteristically low proliferative and their estimated turnover times are measured in years, whereas those of tumor vessels are markedly dependent on growth factors for survival. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been convincing assigned a central role in the induction of host vessels into a growing tumor (Tables 2.1, 2.2). When endothelial cells invade a newly formed tumor, they come into contact with tumor cells that produce VEGF, which may be responsible not only for vascular proliferation, but also for the altered permeability of the newly formed vessels.