oa Preface

Angiogenesis is becoming an important research topic not only for cancer but also for cardiovascular diseases. In recent years, great strides have been made towards understanding the mechanisms associated with the process of angiogenesis, and towards developing effective tools/approaches of treatment for angiogenesis-related diseases (i.e. cancer, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease). In this special issue of the journal, we are pleased to publish three reviews on “Angiogenesis in the Development of Cardiovascular Disease”, edited by Dr. Pallab (Paul) Ganguly. In the first article, Casieri et al. introduce and discuss the regulation of angiogenic gene expression by different epigenetic modifications. It is suggested that pro-angiogenic epigenetic activators are new factors in the modulation of the angiogenic balance of failing hearts. The article summarizes the epigenetic mechanisms involved in the regulation of function and angiogenic ability of mature endothelial cells residing in the adult myocardium. The second paper by Nader et al. discusses the role of cardiomyocytes and macrophages in myocardial angiogenesis. In fact, both cardiac macrophages and cardiomyocytes have the ability to release angiogenic molecules (VEGF and/or ANGPT) in response to inflammation, ischemia or tissue damage. They also review bench-to-beside translational studies involved in delivery of angiogenic genes, growth factors, or stem cells to patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). However, clinical trials using these approaches have been rather equivocal and underscore the need for further work in this area. The third paper by Dr. Abd-Elfattah in the special edition discusses the relationships between stress, cardiovascular disease and surgeryinduced angiogenesis. According to this review article, it is not wise to promote angiogenesis in cases of coronary artery diseases in cancer patients, and vice versa. Future studies should identify the approaches/targets that selectively suppress tumor angiogenesis without affecting cardiovascular angiogenesis. In addition to this special theme, the subsequent three articles move away from angiogenesis in the field of cardiovascular diseases, and raise concerns for “Targeting angiogenesis in the treatment of multiple myeloma” by Dally N and Eshel E; “Platelets in angiogenesis upon healthy and disease conditions” by Schattner et al.; and methods on angiogenesis quantization by Dr. Kavantzas. Specifically, Dally and Eshel highlight important data regarding angiogenesis in Multiple Myeloma (MM) as well as the drugs currently used to target angiogenesis for its treatment. Schattner et al. presents an integrated summary of the current knowledge on the role of platelets in angiogenesis and its consequences in health and disease. The papers in this special issue represent the most updates on myocardial angiogenesis and other angiogenesis-related research findings. We believe that you will find them informative and helpful in your work. We would like to thank all who kindly contributed their papers for this issue and the guest editor: Dr. Paul Ganguly for collecting and editing these review papers.