Delivery of TFPI-2 Using Ultrasound with a Microbubble Agent (SonoVue) Inhibits Intimal Hyperplasia after Balloon Injury in a Rabbit Carotid Artery Model

Here we report a new, simple and efficient method by using ultrasound and a microbubble agent (SonoVue) for delivering a gene to balloon-injured carotid arteries for restenosis prophylaxis. The tissue factor pathway inhibitor-2 (TFPI-2) has been shown to inhibit the postinjury intimae hyperplasia in atherosclerotic vessels. New Zealand white rabbits were divided into 4 groups with 14 in each, a treatment control for balloon injury, a gene vehicle control, a gene delivery of TFPI-2 without using ultrasound and a gene delivery of TFPI-2 using ultrasound. After four weeks, the injured artery neointimal proliferation was significantly lower in the TFPI-2 group with ultrasound than the control groups (p < 0.01) according to the measurement of the mean luminal diameters by B-mode ultrasonography. The ratio of intimal/media area and the stenosis rate in the gene delivery facilitated by ultrasound were significantly lower than those of the nonultrasound gene delivering method (p < 0.01). (E-mail: chenjuanlinda@gmail.com)