About the Cover
COVER PICTURE: Most mammalian tissues are supplied by two distinct vascular systems, one carrying blood, the other lymph. Vascular permeability factor/vascular endothelial growth factor (VPF/VEGF, VEGF-A) has long been implicated in the induction of new blood vessels (vasculogenesis, angiogenesis) but other members of the VPF/VEGF family, notably VEGF-C and VEGF-D, were thought to be responsible for generating lymphatics. New work, making use of an adenoviral expression vector, now demonstrates that VEGF-A induces a form of lymphangiogenesis characterized by greatly enlarged, poorly functional, ìgiantî lymphatics that persisted long after VEGF-A expression ceased. The cover photomicrograph illustrates a profusion of such giant lymphatics, intravitally perfused with colloidal carbon, in the ear skin of an adult immunodeficient mouse. Abnormal lymphatics of this description are found in human lymphangiomas and in certain forms of chronic inflammation, implicating VEGF-A in their pathogenesis. See related article by Nagy et al.,
p. 1497-1506.
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