Angiogenic and antifibrotic actions of hepatocyte growth factor improve cardiac dysfunction in porcine ischemic cardiomyopathy

• Published in: Gene therapy Vol. 13; no. 16; pp. 1206 - 1213
• Main Authors: AZUMA, J, TANIYAMA, Y, TAKEYA, Y, IEKUSHI, K, AOKI, M, DOSAKA, N, MATSUMOTO, K, NAKAMURA, T, OGIHARA, T, MORISHITA, R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basingstoke Nature Publishing Group 01.08.2006
• Subjects: Angiogenesis; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Blood flow; Cardiac function; Cardiology. Vascular system; Cardiomyopathy; Cardiovascular disease; Care and treatment; Cell differentiation, maturation, development, hematopoiesis; Cell physiology; Clinical trials; Collagen (type I); Coronary Angiography; Coronary artery disease; Coronary heart disease; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA - administration & dosage; Echocardiography; Fibrosis; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene therapy; Genetic Therapy - methods; Growth factors; Health aspects; Heart; Heart - physiopathology; Heart diseases; Hepatocyte growth factor; Hepatocyte Growth Factor - genetics; Hepatocyte Growth Factor - metabolism; HGF gene; Hogs; Injection; Ischemia; Liver cells; Male; Medical sciences; Models, Animal; Molecular and cellular biology; Myocardial ischemia; Myocardial Ischemia - metabolism; Myocardial Ischemia - physiopathology; Myocardial Ischemia - therapy; Myocarditis. Cardiomyopathies; Myocardium; Neovascularization; Neovascularization, Physiologic; Perfusion; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Swine; Transduction, Genetic; Transfection - methods; Japan; Cardiomyopathy; Hepatocyte growth factor; HGF; angina; Cardiovascular disease; myocardium; Angina pectoris; Coronary heart disease; Myocardial disease; Pig; Angiogenesis; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Ischemia; Artiodactyla; Gene therapy; Ungulata
• ISSN: 0969-7128; 1476-5462
• DOI: 10.1038/sj.gt.3302740

Impairment of cardiac function in ischemic cardiomyopathy has been postulated to be due to the decrease in blood flow and increase in collagen synthesis. Therefore, an approach to alter them directly by means of a growth factor may open up a new therapeutic concept in ischemic cardiomyopathy. From this viewpoint, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a unique growth factor with angiogenic and antifibrotic effects. Thus, we examined the feasibility of gene therapy using HGF plasmid DNA for ischemic cardiomyopathy. Human HGF plasmid DNA at a dose of 0.4 or 4 mg was injected into ischemic myocardium of pigs induced by ameroid constrictor with the NOGA system. At 1 month after injection, the ischemic area was significantly reduced in the HGF group, accompanied by a significant increase in capillary density and regional myocardial perfusion in the ischemic area (P<0.01). In contrast, a significant decrease in fibrotic area was observed in the HGF group, associated with a significant decrease in collagen I, III and TGF-beta synthesis as compared to the control group (P<0.01). Consistently, cardiac function was significantly improved in the 4 mg HGF group as compared to the control group (P<0.05). Overall, the present in vivo experiments demonstrated that intramyocardial injection of human HGF plasmid DNA in ischemic cardiomyopathy resulted in a significant improvement in cardiac function through an increase in blood flow and decrease in fibrosis. These favorable outcomes suggest potential utility to treat patients with ischemic heart disease using HGF gene transfer. Currently, a phase I study using human HGF plasmid DNA is ongoing to test the validity of this concept.