Ingrowth of hyperplastic capillary sprouts into fibrin clots: further evidence in favor of the angiogenic hypothesis of repair and fibrosis.

According to the conventional hypothesis and its variants, wound granulation tissue is formed by the proliferation and the migration of two closely cooperating but separated cell systems: the endothelial and the fibroblastic (including pericytes). While the elaborated theory of angiogenesis explains the former, there is not a similar theory concerning the latter. The recently proposed angiogenic hypothesis of repair and fibrosis unifies both cell systems by proposing endothelial origin for fibroblastic cells. It was formed on the basis of hyperplastic capillaries and vascular endothelium derived fibroblastic cells in chronic fibrotic diseases. The recent description of hyperplastic capillary sprouts in experimental fibrin clots confirms the validity of this hypothesis also in healing by primary and secondary intentions.