Angiogenesis and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia. Rendu-Osler-Weber disease.

To date much of the recent work on pathological angiogenesis has focused on inflammatory diseases, diabetes and cancer in particular. Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia or Rendu-Osler-Weber disease provides an example of the genetic disorder of angiogenesis in which a multisystemic angiodysplasia is responsible for severe hemorrhage. The disease pathogenesis is partially explained by a defect in the TGF-beta signaling system, although in more recent works a possible role of other vascular growth factors has been proposed. This paper provides a model of an aberrant angiogenesis in which multiple vascular growth factors could be involved in a diffuse angiodysplasia. Copyright 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel