VEGFA and ischemia: Tissue ischemia per se is not sufficient to regenerate vascular damage, although several studies demonstrated that ischemia is able to stimulate neoangiogenesis through HIF1-mediated processes [9], to induce the secretion of growth factors (i.e., VEGF) and cytokines from the surrounding cells [10], and to promote the recruitment of precursor cells to injured sites by the homing and migration of transplanted hMSCs to ischemic tissues in animal models [11].