Accelerated Restitution of Endothelial Integrity and Endothelium-Dependent Function After phVEGF 165 Gene Transfer

作者：Takayuki Asahara, Donghui Chen, Yukio Tsurumi, Marianne Kearney, Susan Rossow, Jonathan J. Passeri, James F. Symes, Jeffrey M. Isner · 发表于：Circulation · 年份：1996 · 被引用次数：249 · 研究领域：Angiogenesis and VEGF in Cancer、Mesenchymal stem cell research、Blood Coagulation and Thrombosis Mechanisms

BACKGROUND: Delinquent reendothelialization (rET) has been shown to have a permissive, if not facilitatory, impact on smooth muscle cell proliferation. This inverse relation has been attributed to certain functions of the endothelium, including barrier regulation of permeability, thrombogenicity, and leukocyte adherence, as well as production of growth-inhibitory molecules. Accordingly, the present investigation was designed to test the hypothesis that an endothelial cell (EC) mitogen could serve as the basis for a novel gene therapy strategy designed to facilitate EC regeneration, reduce neointimal thickening, and promote recovery of EC dysfunction after balloon injury. METHODS AND RESULTS: New Zealand White rabbits underwent simultaneous balloon injury and gene transfer of one femoral artery with phVEGF165, encoding the 165-amino acid isoform of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), or pGSVLacZ. In each animal transfected with phVEGF165 or pGSVLacZ, the contralateral femoral artery was also subjected to balloon injury but not to gene transfer. For pGSVLacZ, rET remained incomplete at 4 weeks after transfection; in contrast, phVEGF165 produced prompt rET, which was 95% complete by 1 week. Furthermore, rET in the contralateral, balloon-injured, nontransfected limb of the VEGF group was similarly accelerated. Consequently, intimal thickening was diminished, thrombotic occlusion was less frequent, and recovery of EC-dependent vasomotor reactivity was accelerated in VEGF tr...