WEDNESDAY, Feb. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Scaffolds that contain vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-expressing cells, which are implanted during the creation of a distal pedicle flap, may improve flap survival after reconstructive surgery, according to the results of a study of rabbits published in the March issue of the Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery.
Jose M. Lasso, M.D., Ph.D., of the Hospital General Universitaro Gregorio Marañón in Madrid, Spain, and colleagues tested the efficacy of a fibrin-based scaffold that contained endothelial cells that were genetically engineered to over-express VEGF.
Using a rabbit model, animals were divided into four groups of eight. Control rabbits were given endothelial cells in a fibrin scaffold. In the active-treatment group, rabbits were treated with the VEGF-secreting endothelial cells embedded in a fibrin scaffold. The pedicles were divided after two days or after five days in both groups.
Overall, there was a "dramatic" increase in angiogenesis in the flaps conditioned by the VEGF-producing scaffolds. Specifically, when the pedicle was divided after two days, flap survival was 55.62 percent in the group grafted with the VEGF-secreting scaffold, compared to 2.5 percent in the rabbits receiving the non-VEGF scaffold.
"Our results demonstrate that endothelial cells engineered by gene therapy to over-express VEGF work as an efficient bridge between the flap and the recipient bed vasculature," the study authors conclude.
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