HPRT targeting: "Ets" a powerful tool for investigating endothelial-cell specific gene expression.

Elucidating the role of genes that are important for the development of the vascular endothelium and their time course of expression throughout ontogeny is an important and exciting area of ongoing investigation. In addition to advances that can be made to better understand the vasculature from a developmental perspective, there are obvious clinical implications from determining how gene expression in the endothelium participates in blood vessel formation and function. For example, since tumors require an adequate supply of blood to proliferate, there is a tremendous interest in uncovering mechanisms controlling vascularization and angiogenesis. Moreover, enhancing our understanding of the regulation of gene expression in the blood vessel wall has clear clinical implications for improving collateral blood vessel formation in tissues after an ischemic insult and in peripheral vascular disease.