Coronary Occlusion Delivery

About

Summary In his research on cardiac disease, Dr. Jay Edelberg, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, has been characterizing the communication between cardiac myocytes and microvascular endothelial cells mediated by platelet-derived growth factor-AB (PDGF-AB). During 2002 he made several discoveries about this pathway from animal experiments that have led to inventions to help prevent and heal cardiac dysfunction associated with aging and disease. This invention is a method of reducing damage following coronary occlusion. His earlier results had shown PDGF to be cardioprotective when delivered 24 hours prior to, but not at time of, coronary occlusion. Hypothesizing that administration of downstream proteins could expand the window of opportunity of cardioprotection from myocardial infarction, the Edelberg lab determined the set of proteins that enhance the beneficial actions of PDGF. The investigators developed a mixture of growth factors (PDGF-AB, VEGF and Angiopoietin-2) that - when delivered by intramyocardial injection at the time of coronary occlusion in a rat infarction model - prevented acute myocardial cell death and reduced myocardial injury measured 14 days after the occlusion to about half of that observed with PBS, PDGF alone, or other protein combinations.