The ability to regulate and manipulate the generation or remodeling of blood vessels is key to the successful treatment of many chronic diseases, both oncological and non-oncological. Several bioactive compounds present in human diets are now known to exert an inhibitive effect on the either the signaling or construction of new blood vessels. The identification and characterization of these anti-angiogenic molecules opens a new avenue for the research and production of functional and medicinal foods with far reaching implications for the food-based treatment of chronic degenerative disease. Drawing from an extensive list of esteemed international contributors, Anti-Angiogenic Functional and Medicinal Foods explores the history and scope of the use of conventional foods, nutraceuticals, and health products in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, India, Australia, and New Zealand. Recent advancements in proteomics, genomics, and toxicogenomics give us a far more detailed picture of the molecular basis of nutrition and systems toxicology. Explaining the role of angiogenesis in various chronic diseases, individual chapters consider endothelial cell responses, the mechanism of the angiogenic cascade, and the angiogenic function involved in tumors, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory arthritis, and obesity. A collection of chapters studies specific foods and their functional bioactive compounds such as the effects of edible berry anthocyanins, various Chinese medicinal foods, dietary flavonoids, probiotics, shark cartilage, EPA and DHA, and marine polysaccharides. The book concludes with a discussion of the challenges faced during the development and delivery of anti-angiogenic functional food products.
Presenting the current research and state of the science, Anti-Angiogenic Functional and Medicinal Foods provides researchers, scientists, clinical nutritionists, and oncologists with a valuable reference to this important and growing mode of