Angiopoietin-1 and regulation of vascular permeability

Angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1) is a newly-found endothelium-specific proangiogenic factor and it had been proved essential roles in both vasculogenesis and angiogensis. Among them, its anti-leakage ability may have great potential applications in clinical treatment of vascular hyper-permeability in a variety of diseases such as cancer, diabetic retinopathy, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma. In this review, some research progresses focused on this aspect are discussed.