Copyright © 2006, European Society of Cardiology
Viral or non-viral angiogenesis gene transfer–New answers to old questions
Department of Cardiology and Angiology, University Hospital of Münster, Germany
* Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik C, Department of Cardiology and Angiology, University Hospital Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 33, 48149 Münster, Germany. Tel.: +49 251 83 48501; fax: +49 251 83 45101. Email address: nikol@uni-muenster.de
Received 27 November 2006; accepted 6 December 2006
| The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below. |
See article by Hao et al. [8] (pages 481–487) in this issue.
Therapeutic angiogenesis has come a long way in 15 years of research [1]. Mechanisms of vessel formation are well characterised, and their elucidation has led to numerous clinical trials targeting mostly single factors involved in this process: there are at least 106 registered angiogenesis gene therapy trials with an estimated 2000 patients treated to date [2]. Table 1 summarises phase II angiogenesis gene therapy trials that have been completed for both coronary and peripheral artery disease. Thus, angiogenesis gene therapy has quietly reached the era of phase III clinical trials aiming at the first-time approval for this new