Insights into Angiogenic Switch Mechanics: A Role for Microvascular Pericytes in Wound Healing
Recent work ongoing in the Center for Innovations in Wound Healing Research now indicates that microvascular pericytes can ‘instruct’ capillary-derived endothelial cells, ‘switching’ the endothelium from a growth-arrested into a growth-promoted state. With this shift, there is a marked increase in angiogenic potential when specific features of the pericyte are altered via genetic and molecular means. With this manipulation, pericytes are mechanically altered in that the cells become more contractile and better able to activate angiogenesis in response to injury. These exciting findings have recently published in the American J Physiology-Cell Physiology.