Over the past decade, rapid progress had been made in elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms of new blood vessel formation in both health and disease. Lack of sufficient angiogenesis (new capillary development) and collateral formation (remodeling of existing blood vessels) in adult tissues (e. g., heart, brain, skeletal muscle) during criti cal ischemia has prompted novel therapeutic strategies to stimulate/fa cilitate angiogenesis and collateral formation in ischemic conditions ("therapeutic angiogenesis"). Therapeutic angiogenesis describes a strategy of inducing new col lateral...