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(Circulation. 2001;104:594.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.

Basic Science Reports

Recombinant Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Secreted From Tissue-Engineered Bioartificial Muscles Promotes Localized Angiogenesis

Yongxin Lu, MD; Janet Shansky, MSc; Michael Del Tatto, BS; Paulette Ferland; Xiaoyun Wang, MD; Herman Vandenburgh, PhD

From the Department of Pathology, Brown University School of Medicine, and The Miriam Hospital (Y.L., J.S., M.D., P.F., X.W., H.V.); and Cell Based Delivery, Inc (J.S., M.D., P.F., H.V.), Providence, RI.

Correspondence to Herman Vandenburgh, PhD, Cell Based Delivery, 4 Richmond Square, Providence, RI 02906. E-mail herman_vandenburgh{at}brown.edu

Background— Therapeutic angiogenesis by the administration of recombinant vascular endothelial growth factor (rVEGF) is a novel strategy for the treatment of ischemic disorders. rVEGF has been delivered as a protein, by plasmid DNA, and by genetically engineered cells with different pharmacokinetic and physiological properties. In the present study, we examined a new method for delivery of rVEGF using implantable bioartificial muscle (BAM) tissues made from genetically modified primary skeletal myoblasts. Our goal was to determine whether the rVEGF delivered by this technique promoted controlled angiogenesis in nonischemic and/or ischemic adult mouse tissue.

Methods and Results— Primary adult mouse myoblasts were retrovirally transduced to secrete human or mouse rVEGF and tissue-engineered into implantable 1x10 to 15-mm BAMs containing parallel arrays of postmitotic myofibers. In vitro, they secreted 290 to 511 ng of bioactive mouse or human VEGF/BAM per day. rVEGF BAMs implanted subcutaneously into syngeneic mice caused a 30-fold increase in the number of CD31-positive capillary cells within the BAM by 1 week compared with control BAMs. Implantation of rVEGF-secreting BAMs into ischemic hindlimbs resulted in a 2- to 3-fold increase in capillary density of neighboring host muscle by 1 week and out to 4 weeks with no evidence of hemangioma formation.

Conclusions— Local delivery of rVEGF from BAMs rapidly increases capillary density both within the BAM itself and in adjacent ischemic muscle tissue. Genetically engineered muscle tissue provides a method for therapeutic protein delivery in a dose-regulated fashion.

Key Words: angiogenesis • muscles • ischemia • gene therapy

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