In European countries, nearly 10% of all hospital admissions are related to respiratory diseases, mainly chronic life-threatening diseases such as COPD, pulmonary hypertension, IPF or lung cancer. The contribution of blood vessels and angiogenesis to lung regeneration, remodeling and disease progression has been increasingly appreciated. The vascular supply of the lung shows the peculiarity of dual perfusion of the pulmonary circulation (vasa publica), which maintains a functional blood-gas barrier, and the bronchial circulation (vasa privata), which reveals a profiled capacity for angiogenesis (namely intussusceptive and sprouting angiogenesis) and alveolar-vascular remodeling by the recruitment of endothelial precursor cells. The aim of this review is to outline the importance of vascular remodeling and angiogenesis in a variety of non-neoplastic and neoplastic acute and chronic respiratory diseases such as lung infection, COPD, lung fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension and lung cancer.
Keyphrases
- pulmonary hypertension
- endothelial cells
- vascular endothelial growth factor
- wound healing
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- pulmonary artery
- stem cells
- induced apoptosis
- lung function
- liver failure
- idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
- intensive care unit
- oxidative stress
- coronary artery
- cell death
- acute respiratory distress syndrome
- mechanical ventilation