Angiogenesis 101: How Body Heals!!!
How Does the Growth of New Cell and Cell Healing Happens?
Well, our circulatory system is lined with about a trillion endothelial cells, making them one of the most prevalent cell types in your body (Li, 2019). The endothelial cells that lines in our veins waits for the growth factor signals that will tell them to spread out, like a rescue squad. Endothelial cells are prepared to go in the direction of the protein growth factors, where they begin to divide and create tubes that develop into new blood vessels. The new blood vessels are actually very fragile to support blood flow on their own and are assisted by another cell called, the pericyte. DiPietro in his article “Angiogenesis and Wound Repair: When Enough Is Enough” mentions that the Pericytes gets wrapped around the endothelial tubes to provide architectural stability and also slows down Angiogenesis for controlling overage of blood vessels. When the new blood arteries are firmly in place, the endothelial cells lining them produce proteins known as survival factors which assist in cell healing.
Angiogenesis system continuously determines where and when more vessels are required to maintain the health and functionality of organs. The system always watches for reducing the size of blood vessels where required. A healthy Angiogenesis system is intended to achieve the ideal balance and mix of blood vessels, not too few or too many, 24 hours a day. To increase the number of blood vessels, endogenous (naturally existing in the body) Angiogenesis inhibitors is used. These inhibitors exist everywhere, including in our muscles, blood, heart, brain, breast milk, and even semen.
What happens if Human Body gets unable to control Angiogenesis?
The ability of Human Body to control angiogenesis must be in excellent condition and it then only maximises overall health of an Individual (Li, 2019). However, numerous variables can undermine this defence mechanism throughout the course of a lifetime, resulting in either:
· Excessive angiogenesis : which can feed sick tissues, or,
· Insufficient angiogenesis : which can cause tissue loss and death.
The main reason that Folkman describes in his article, “Tumor Dormancy In Vivo by Prevention of Neovascularization,”for microscopic Cancers to not to grow is our body’s natural angiogenesis inhibitors. These defence mechanisms prevent tumours from growing by denying them a blood supply. As long as tumours don’t develop new blood vessels to feed them, the cancer cells will be dormant and harmless. In laboratory trials, a tumor can develop exponentially and increase in size by up to sixteen thousand times in just two weeks once new blood vessels begin to sprout into the small cluster of cancer cells.
A harmless cancer swiftly develops into fatal when tumours use the immune system’s defence mechanism of angiogenesis to build their own circulation. Even worse, the same blood arteries that supply cancer tumours also act as exit points for cancerous cells to enter the bloodstream. Dr. Li have mentioned in his book that the most hazardous element of cancer is indeed a metastasis. Cancer patients rarely lose their lives from these primary tumours, which are actually treatable with surgery. But it is the metastases, which splatter throughout the body and cause death.
More than a hundred different foods, including soy, tomatoes, black raspberries, pomegranate, and even some unexpected ones like licorice, beer, and cheese, can help your body’s ability to starve cancer and keep the tumours tinyand harmless. The grocery shop, the farmers market, and your garden are your defence resources for combating against these tumours.
