title: Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor: a noninvasive regeneration therapy for treating atherosclerotic peripheral artery disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The purpose of this study was to determine whether treatment with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), which mobilizes endothelial progenitor cells from bone marrow, can safely improve the clinical outcomes of patients with atherosclerotic peripheral artery disease (PAD).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-nine patients with intractable PAD were randomly assigned to 3 groups: a negative control group (n=12) treated with conventional drug therapy; a positive control group (n=13) treated with conventional drug therapy plus bone marrow transplantation (BMT); and a G-CSF group (n=14) treated with conventional therapy plus subcutaneous injection of 2-5 microg/kg of recombinant human G-CSF once daily for 10 days. One month after treatment, subjective symptoms improved significantly in the G-CSF and BMT groups. Ankle-brachial pressure index and transcutaneous oxygen pressure increased significantly in the BMT and G-CSF groups, but no such improvements were seen in the group receiving conventional therapy alone.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  G-CSF improves the clinical signs and symptoms of patients with intractable PAD to the same degree as BMT does. This noninvasive treatment may thus represent a useful new approach to managing the disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Regeneration Medicine and Bioethics, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Masazumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arai
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Misao
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawasaki
authors.forename: Kenshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagashima
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Kunihiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuchiya
authors.forename: Setsuko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Otsuka
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Uno
authors.forename: Genzou
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Takemura
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishigaki
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Minatoguchi
authors.forename: Hisayoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000628:therapy*; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D005260:Female; D016179:Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D019650:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Mobilization / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D012038:Regeneration / Q000187:drug effects; D012074:Remission Induction; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D016179:Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor