Peptide for inhibiting growth of smooth muscle cells

A process for preventing or treating pathological conditions associated with growth of smooth muscle cells, which comprises

• administering to a patient in need thereof a peptide having an activity to inhibit growth of smooth muscle cells,
• wherein said peptide is homologous to a C-terminal region of tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI), said C-terminal region being obtained after removal of a region ranging from the N-terminal to at least Kunitz 3 from TFPI so that said C-terminal region comprises up to thirty seven amino acid residues,
• wherein said peptide consists of
• a peptide (A) of an amino acid sequence with thirteen amino acids in length among which more than four amino acids are basic amino acids and
• a peptide (B) of an amino acid sequence comprising at least two consecutive, hydrophobic amino acid residues, said amino acid sequence being selected from the group consisting of Ile-Phe, Ile-Phe-Val, Ile-Phe-Val-Xaa (SEQ ID NO:23), Ile-Phe-Val-Xaa-Asn (SEO ID NO:24) and Ile-Phe-Val-Xaa-Asn-Met (SEO ID NO:25) in which Xaa is either Lys or Gln,
• wherein said peptide (B) is linked to the C-terminal of said peptide (A) directly or via four amino acid residues.