Intravenous injection of phagocytes transfected ex vivo with FGF4 DNA/biodegradable gelatin complex promotes angiogenesis in a rat myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury model.

Conventional gene therapies still present difficulties due to poor tissue-targeting, invasiveness of delivery, method, or the use of viral vectors. To establish the feasibility of using non-virally ex vivo transfected phagocytes to promote angiogenesis in ischemic myocardium, gene-transfection into isolated phagocytes was performed by culture with positively charged gelatin impregnated with plasmid DNA. A high rate of gene transfection was achieved in rat macrophages and human monocytes, but not in mouse fibroblasts.

[Efficacy of Nifekalant hydrochloride for life-threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmias in patients with resistance to lidocaine: a study of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest].

Objectives: Class I antiarrhythmic agents are not always effective in the treatment of life-threatening ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) especially in patients with cardiopulmonary arrest. Nifekalant hydrochloride(NIF) is a novel class III antiarrhythmic agent for malignant VT/VF. This study prospectively evaluated NIF efficacy for life-threatening VT/VF observed after cardiopulmonary arrest.

Inhomogeneous vasodilatory responses of rat tail arteries to heat stress: evaluation by synchrotron radiation microangiography.

Tail blood flow is crucial for dissipating body heat in rats. Angiographies are convenient tools to evaluate tail circulation. However, conventional angiographies do not have sufficient sensitivity or spatial resolution for small vessels.