Vascular Development in Life, Disease and Cancer Medicine, MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
77 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307,

Course Description,
The growth of blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis, is one of the earliest events in mammalian development and is regulated by a sensitive interplay of growth factors and other molecules.

In this course, we will discuss the key molecular regulators of blood vessel development as well as the techniques and experimental systems that have been utilized by vascular biologists. We will also examine the success of several anti-angiogenic treatments that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that inhibit the pro-angiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF, and that are now being used to treat age-related macular degeneration. Finally, we will explore how during the course of cancer progression, establishment of a blood supply into a tumor can lead to the growth and spread of cancer cells to secondary sites. We will discuss the caveats and potential pitfalls of targeting tumor blood vessels to starve cancer cells and prevent the spread of cancer, which remains one of the leading causes of death in the USA.