Role of the oxygen-dependent degradation domain in a hypoxia-inducible gene expression system in vascular endothelial growth factor gene therapy.

STUDY DESIGN.: An in vitro neural hypoxia model and rat spinal cord injury (SCI) model were used to assess the regulation effect of a reporter or therapeutic gene expression by an oxygen-dependent degradation (ODD) domain in a hypoxia-inducible gene expression system with or without the erythropoietin (EPO) enhancer. OBJECTIVE.