Figure 1.

Schematic diagram of ischemia diseases and physiological response. In general, the responses can be divided into four phases: i) thrombus formation phase. Under some physiological and pathological factors, the vessels are occluded as a result of the thrombus formation; ii) cell damage phase (day 0 to 2). After 0-2 days, the accompanying of ischemic events such as hypoxia, hypoperfusion, metabolic dysregulation induce cell apoptosis and necrosis; iii) inflammatory phase (day 0 to 7). The inflammatory features appear. The migration and differentiation of myofibroblasts, and extracellular matrix proteins deposition, eventually lead to formation of a scar tissue to replace necrotic cells; iv) remodeling and regeneration phase (day 3 to 21). During this latter phase, new vessel formation and/or remodeling of the preexisting vasculature take place in ischemic zone.