During formation of the vascular system, successively smaller blood vessels sprout from existing ones to form networks of capillaries in patterns uniquely adapted to the function of the organ they enter. This process, called angiogenesis, involves complex interactions between several molecular signaling pathways, which are integrated within individual cells by various types of protein modification. Yoichi Gondo from the RIKEN BioResource Center in Tsukuba, in collaboration with a team of researchers from Canada, has now identified the molecule that regulates angiogenesis and determined its regulatory mechanism.
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