The chronic non healing wound:
This “epidemic” was estimated in 2016 to affect 6.7 million patients. One third attended wound patients, suffer from non-healing wounds resulting in amputation or death. up to 55% require amputation of the second leg within 2‐3 years. The average cost for each amputation is over $70,000. Nearly half of the amputees, due to vascular disease, die within 5 years. A rate higher than for breast cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer combined. The cost for treatment ranges from $ 3.5K to $ 40K/year in non-healing wounds. The general cost of wound care currently exceeds $ 50 billion/year in the USA.
Control over blood vessel formation:
This is crucial for the cure of many persistent disease types such as, cancer, obesity, diabetes cardiovascular disease and ocular disease. In the case of cancer that control could provide for the opportunity of curing most types of cancers. Furthermore, establishment of stable blood vessels is quintessential for the prospects of engineering thick and viable artificially engineered tissues and organs for future human transplantations.