Controlled growth factor delivery for therapeutic angiogenesis into the heart by cell-based gene expression or fibrin-based protein release

Ischemic heart disease is one of the most frequent causes of death worldwide. When an imbalance occurs between myocardial oxygen supply and demand, such as in angina or myocardial infarction, interventional and surgical revascularization strategies can restore blood flow in the ischemic region. However, many patients could benefit from an additional therapeutic stimulation of micro-vascular growth. First, we combined the cell and gene therapy approaches for a controlled and sustained expression of growth factors, showing the potential to stabilize an infarction in a rodent model. Then, we moved to an optimized fibrin-based delivery platform, which provides a convenient, clinically approved and off-the-shelf product to deliver the growth factors as recombinant proteins and investigated its feasibility in the heart.