Vascular assembly, patterning, and maintenance is a complex and highly regulated process
that begins with the formation of a primary capillary plexus by means of angiogenesis or
vasculogenesis and ends when the primitive vessels have been remodeled into quiescent,
differentiated vessels. Differentiated or “mature” microvessels are characterized in large part
by their association with pericytes, and failure of these interactions results in severe, and
often lethal, defects that have been implicated in a number of human pathologic conditions …