Echocardiography can improve the success rate of gene therapy, according to research presented this week at the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) annual scientific sessions in Montreal.
The research team, led by Alexandra Smith of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, also found that echocardiography-mediated gene therapy appears to increase growth, function, and sustainability of regenerated vessels.
Believing that a strategy of multigene therapy using a combination of vascular growth factors would improve blood flow to muscle with chronically compromised flow, the researchers employed echocardiography with carrier microbubble agents to enhance gene delivery to rats with chronic vascular occlusion. They found that the technique yielded an increased and sustained level of blood flow, vessel density, and flow reserve, according to ASE.
