Roles of ubiquitination and sumoylation in the regulation of angiogenesis

Abstract

The generation of new blood vessels from the existing vasculature is a dynamic and complex mechanism known as angiogenesis. Angiogenesis occurs during the entire lifespan of vertebrates and participates in many physiological processes. Furthermore, angiogenesis is also actively involved in many human diseases and disorders, including cancer, obesity and infections. Several inter-con-nected molecular pathways regulate angiogenesis, and post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation, ubiquitination and SUMOylation, tightly regulate these mechanisms and play a key role in the control of the process. Here, we describe in detail the roles of ubiquitination and SUMOylation in the regulation of angiogenesis.