Tumor Angiogenesis in Cancers: Expression of CD105 Marker

Angiogenesis is an important step in the process of cancer growth and wound healing (Folkman 1971). Cancer is always accompanied by angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is a complex of endothelial cell growth through an interaction of growth factors and their ligands and of sustaining matrices. Several sources of vascular endothelium are thought to participate in angiogenesis: sprouting from the preexisting blood vessel or mobilization from the bone marrow and circulation in the blood stream, and anchoring and colonization at the lesion (Asahara et al. 1999; Gunsilius et al. 2000). Whatever the source of angiogenic cells, endothelial cells express specific molecules and proliferate through an interaction with their ligands. In this chapter, the morphologic features of tumor angiogenesis, general endothelial markers of endothelium, and proliferation specific molecule CD105 are discussed.