Washington, Nov 24 (PTI) Researchers have identified a signalling pathway that is essential for the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels. "The findings are important because they shed new light on the biological process needed to increase blood flow in ischemic tissues," said Komatsu. Previous efforts to treat ischemia by creating new blood vessels have focused on delivering angiogenic growth factors like vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) to ischemic sites. "Generating new blood vessels is similar to the way trees grow, sprouts develop from existing vessels and then branch out further and further to restore vascularity, said lead author of the study Fangfei Li from the SBP. "We propose that VEGF and R-Ras activation of Akt signalling are complementary to each other, both are necessary to generate fully functional blood vessels to repair ischemic tissue," said Komatsu.

Source: India Today November 24, 2017 08:03 UTC