ORIGINAL ARTICLES  CARDIAC PAPERS 

The Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery 1998 August;39(4):445-53

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

The stimulation of neo-angiogenesis in the ischemic heart by the human growth factor FGF

Schumacher B., Von Specht B. U.*, Haberstroh J.*, Pecher P.

From the Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Ulm, Germany *Department of Surgical Research, University Hospital, Freiburg, Germany

Background. The ­present arti­cle ­deals ­with the con­duct of our ani­mal experi­ments ­with the ­human ­growth fac­tor FGF (fibro­blast ­growth fac­tor) and the ­results ­obtained there­from.
Methods. In ­order to estab­lish the angiog­e­net­ic poten­tial of FGF, ­this fac­tor was ­first ­obtained ­from a genet­i­cal­ly trans­formed ­strain of E. Coli, and ­then iso­lat­ed and high­ly pur­i­fied. Afterwards the ­growth fac­tor FGF has ­been ­used in sev­er­al in ­vitro- and in ­vivo experi­ments in ­order to ­prove its influ­ence on neo­-an­gio­gen­e­sis in ischem­ic tis­sue.
Results. In cul­tures of endo­the­lial ­cells ­from the ­human ­great saph­e­nous ­vein it has ­been pos­sible to stim­u­late ­growth suc­cess­ful­ly ­with FGF ­obtained in ­this way, and a fur­ther ­increase in its ­action was ­brought ­about by the addi­tion of hep­ar­in. In trit­i­um-thy­mi­dine ­assays, the endo­the­lial ­cell stim­u­lat­ing ­action of FGF was con­firmed. It ­could ­also be ­shown angio­graph­i­cal­ly ­that admin­is­ter­ing FGF to the ischem­ic myo­car­di­um of ­these ani­mals ­initiates the devel­op­ment of new ves­sels, and we ­could dem­on­strate ­that a myo­car­dial cap­il­lary net­work sprout­ing direct­ly ­from the cor­o­nary ves­sels them­selves can estab­lish an alter­na­tive ­blood ­flow. These ­results ­were con­firmed his­to­log­i­cal­ly by the sig­nif­i­cant­ly great­er cap­il­lary den­sity ­which ­appeared fol­low­ing the use of the ­growth fac­tor.
Conclusions. By ­using the ­human ­growth fac­tor FGF, we ­have ­been ­able for the ­first ­time to under­stand the phys­io­log­i­cal pro­cess­es of angio­gen­e­sis as ­they ­come ­into ­play dur­ing ­wound heal­ing or the devel­op­ment of col­lat­er­als fol­low­ing tis­sue ische­mia, and to use ­this knowl­edge for the pro­duc­tion of new ves­sels in the ischem­ic ­hearts of ­rats and rab­bits. Decisive for the ­future use of the fac­tor in ­human ­patients - par­tic­u­lar­ly for the treat­ment of cor­o­nary ­heart dis­ease (CHD) are the ­results of experi­men­tal inves­ti­ga­tions ­designed to ­exclude the pos­sibil­ity of the ­growth fac­tor initiat­ing or stim­u­lat­ing neo­pla­sia.