Treatment of vascular injury using vascular endothelial growth factor

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for inducing reendothelialization of the lining of an injured blood vessel comprising contacting the injured portion of the vessel with nucleic acid encoding an endothelial cell mitogen such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) operably linked to a promoter to result in expression of the mitogen when delivered to the cells at the site of vascular injury. The resulting reendothelialization of the injured blood vessel inhibits smooth muscle cell proliferation and consequently reduces restenosis. The methods of the present invention may be used to treat any blood vessel injury that results in denuding of the endothelial lining of the vessel wall, including, for example, those injuries resulting from balloon angioplasty and deployment of endovascular stents.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.