role of copper and vascular endothelial growth factor (vegf) on endometrial angiogenesis

The formation of new blood vessels is the ini-tial step in neovascularisation. The first stagein angiogenesis is the activation of endothelialcells. Copper ions stimulate proliferation andimmigration of endothelial cells. It has beenshown that serum copper concentration in-creases as the cancer disease progresses andcorrelates with tumour incidence and burden.Copper ions also activate several proangiogenicfactors, e.g., vascular endothelial growth fac-tor, basic fibroblast growth factor, andinterleukin 1. This review concerns a brief in-troduction into the basics of blood vessel de-velopment as well as the regulatory mecha-nisms of this process. The role of copper ionsin angiogenesis is discussed.