Stimulation of postnatal neovascularization is an important therapeutic option to rescue tissue from critical ischemia. After the discovery of growth factors promoting the migration, proliferation, and tubeforming activity of endothelial cells, recombinant growth factors or genes encoding for growth factors were used to improve tissue neovascularization. Recent findings that endothelial progenitor cells can be isolated from the bone marrow or the circulation open further perspectives for the cell therapy of ischemia. Infusion of these precursor cells was shown to augment neovascularization and improve cardiac function after ischemia. Both strategies have achieved promising effects in small pilot trials. The combination of gene therapy and cell therapy may thus be an important option for the future...