Tumor Suppressor Blocks Restenosis - Brief Article

Applied Genetics News, Dec 19, 1999

Researchers at Jefferson Medical College, led by assistant professor Pier Paolo Claudio, have found that the gene for tumor suppressor Rb2/p130 may be an effective adjunct to angioplasty in treating blocked coronary arteries. Their findings are reported in the Nov. 26 issue of Circulation Research.

Coronary arteries may become blocked because normal smooth muscle cells clump and cake on artery walls. Physicians frequently use balloon angioplasty to break up the blockage. But a third or more patients experience reclogged arteries, or restenosis within three months. Some researchers suspect that injury to the vessel wall caused by angioplasty triggers biochemical signals to cause smooth muscle cells to grow again.

Claudio and his co-workers used adenoviruses to deliver the Rb2/p130 gene into the arteries of rats with simulated coronary disease. The researchers looked at the levels of Rb2/p130 after 20 days using biochemical analysis. The Rb2/p130 gene continued to show a "pronounced expression in the arterial walls, preventing the proliferation of smooth muscle cells and restenosis," he says. He plans to test the treatment in transgenic mice that carry the human genes for high cholesterol and which have chronic heart disease and clogged arteries.