Written by: Sarah Thacker, Scott Kelsey, and Anshika Sharma. Cell Biology Center of Excellence, Lonza, Durham, North Carolina, USA.

Angiogenesis – the formation of new blood vessels – is a process involving the migration, growth and differentiation of endothelial cells that line the inside walls of blood vessels. It is a normal and vital process in growth, development, reproduction, wound healing and the formation of granulation tissue. Further, it also plays a fundamental role in the transition of tumors from benign to malignant states, including invasion and metastasis, and a variety of other diseases in which therapeutic treatment requires either the promotion (e.g., limb ischemia) or inhibition of angiogenesis (e.g., cancer or retinopathy).

Angiogenesis can be modeled in vitro through tube formation assays that visually track the migration and formation of endothelial cells into tubes, which are the basis of capillaries. These assays can be used to test the efficacy of compounds that either inhibit or promote angiogenesis. In this technical note, we demonstrate the successful development of a tube formation assay using Lonza’s primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) that can be used to visualize angiogenesis in real-time.

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