title: The angiogenetic effect of intramuscular administration of VEGF on muscle. The influence of exercise on angiogenesis.
abstract: Although angiogenetic therapy using recombinant growth factors holds much hope for the treatment of ischemic diseases, there are still unanswered questions including the method, doses or duration of therapeutic approach. We evaluated the angiogenetic effects of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) on rat heart and gastrocnemius muscles when this was administered intramuscularly and compared them to those obtained from rats, which exercised daily.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both daily swimming exercise and intramuscular administration of VEGF increased angiogenesis in rat heart, even though exercise alone was the only one that increased angiogenesis quite significantly. The combined protocol (administration of growth factor and exercise) led to an increase of angiogenesis in cardiac muscles. In contrast, there was no effect on the lateral gastrocnemius muscle either by VEGF or exercise, whereas these together induced angiogenesis locally at the site of injection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis 681 00, Greece. aefthim@med.duth.gr
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Efthimiadou
authors.forename: Byron
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Asimakopoulos
authors.forename: Nikos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nikolettos
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giatromanolaki
authors.forename: Efthimios
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sivridis
authors.forename: Theodoros S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Lialiaris
authors.forename: Dimitrios N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Papachristou
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kontoleon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000187:drug effects; D006321:Heart / Q000187:drug effects*; D007273:Injections, Intramuscular; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000098:blood supply / Q000187:drug effects*; D009206:Myocardium; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic / Q000187:drug effects*; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A