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The cellular actions of VEGF need to be coordinated to guide vascular patterning during sprouting angiogenesis. Individual endothelial tip cells lead and guide the blood vessel sprout, while neighbouring stalk cells proliferate and form the vascular lumen. Recent studies illustrate how endothelial DLL4/NOTCH signalling, stimulated by VEGF, regulates the sprouting response by limiting tip cell formation in the stalk. The spatial distribution of VEGF, in turn, regulates the shape of the ensuing sprout by directing tip cell migration and determining stalk cell proliferation.
Holger Gerhardt (Wed,) studied this question.