1.There is growing evidence of the beneficial effects of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) in myocardial infarction, heart failure and occlusive peripheral arterial disease.
As intramuscular injection of naked human hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) plasmid DNA induced therapeutic angiogenesis in several animal test subjects, we have started a clinical trial to treat peripheral arterial disease.
Recent studies have demonstrated the potential application of HGF to treat cardiovascular diseases such as peripheral vascular disease, myocardial infarction and cerebrovascular disease.
Transfection of HGF plasmid by the ultrasound-Optison method could be useful for safe clinical gene therapy to treat peripheral arterial disease without a viral vector system.
Overall, intramuscular injection of human HGF plasmid induced therapeutic angiogenesis in a rat diabetic ischemic hindlimb model as a potential therapy for peripheral arterial disease.
In this study, we examined the feasibility of gene therapy using HGF to treat peripheral arterial disease rather than recombinant therapy, due to its disadvantages.