Abstract: The objective was to study the gene therapy effects of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) and to find the new approaches to describe the development and evaluation of blood circulation on a rabbit hindlimb ischemic model. The limb ischemic model was developed by ligation of the distal external iliac artery and excision of every branches of femoral arteries. As soon as the model was established, the recombinant plasmids pcDNA3.1/VEGF165 was transferred by injection into the ischemia muscles. Each animal was evaluated by angiography, calf blood pressure, blood volume of keen per second, speed of blood circulation and erythrocyte concentration per second on keens of the rabbit. At the same time the histologic changes of the adductor muscle and the gastrocnemucs muscle in the left and right hindlimbs were studied. In control group the number of the rabbits which developed superficial tissue necrosis in the foot was greater than those in experimental group. Angiography demonstrated that in the experimental group, the filling of the distal arterial was markedly faster than in the control group and focal neovessels establishment of collateral circulation was higher than that in the control group at the same time. The calf blood presure in the experimental group increased faster than that in the control group. Histologic study showed that the evidences of atrophy and fibrosis in the control group were more obvious than those in the experimental group and neovessels were less than the experimental group. Between the two groups there were not significant difference in the function of liver and kidney. The experimental studies indicate that VEGF gene therapy would be effective and safe for limb ischemia diseases.

Key words: limb ischemia, VEGF, gene therapy