Methods for inducing localized vascular development and enhancing the repair of a wound in the mammamian dermis

Abstract

A method for repairing defects and inducing vascularization in mammalian tissue, preferably skin, involves administering to the tissue a recombinant replication defective virus, preferably adenovirus, carrying a selected growth factor gene, preferably VEGF or PDGF, under operative control of regulatory sequences which direct the expression of the growth factor(s). Also provided is a method for infecting a tissue to be transplanted with such recombinant adenoviruses prior to transplantation and, as a composition, an infected culture of human tissue to be transplanted which is infused with a selected growth factor prior to transplantation. Screening methods for the treatment of angiogenic disorders, e.g., hemangiomas and cancers, also employ an animal model on which is engrafted a full thickness human tissue infused with a growth factor.

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