Angiogenesis
Much of normal tissue growth and development are dependent upon angiogenesis, the proliferation of blood vessels. This process is especially important in young and growing individuals, during different stages of pregnancy, and in wound repair and healing. Angiogenesis also has pathological importance, as in the growth of solid tumors, or the promotion of new coronary vessel growth in heart patients.
Angiogenesis has been a topic for intense biomedical research since the mid-1980s. Professor Ed Tong also began research on this topic around that time, first using the rabbit cornea and the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM), and later the endothelial cell culture. Numerous biology majors worked with me either as research assistants or as independent research students on various projects using one or a combination of thesein vivo and in vitro models.
Many biologically active molecules play an important role in angiogenesis, either in a stimulatory or inhibitory capacity. We have studied the effects of prostaglandins, leukotrienes, cytostatin, etc. During the last few years, we concentrated on the investigation of the angiogenic action of HODEs (hydroxyoctadecadienoic acids). The preliminary data helped us obtain a NIH AREA grant from the National Cancer Institute.