Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor: a noninvasive regeneration therapy for treating atherosclerotic peripheral artery disease.
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.
Arai
Masazumi
M
Department of Cardiology, Regeneration Medicine and Bioethics, Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
Misao
Yu
Y
Nagai
Hiroshi
H
Kawasaki
Masanori
M
Nagashima
Kenshi
K
Suzuki
Koji
K
Tsuchiya
Kunihiko
K
Otsuka
Setsuko
S
Uno
Yoshihiro
Y
Takemura
Genzou
G
Nishigaki
Kazuhiko
K
Minatoguchi
Shinya
S
Fujiwara
Hisayoshi
H
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
D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D016179:Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor