Therapeutic angiogenesis with growth factor using drug delivery system in cardiovascular medicine

Abstract

We have been investigating therapeutic angiogenesis with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) using gelatin hydrogel as a drug delivery system (DDS) in animal models. After we assessed the effectiveness of this new therapeutic technology in animal limb ischemia models and myocardial ischemia models, we recently completed human clinical studies in those settings. This novel therapy clearly has a potential to enhance neovascularization in ischemic lower limb and myocardium, and improves clinical symptoms. In this review, we describe the outcomes of our animal experiments and human clinical studies, and discuss the future perspectives.