(Abstract)
Partial necrosis of pedicle skin flaps remains a substantial problem in plastic and reconstructive surgery. Ischemia may jeopardize skin flap survival and result in flap necrosis. The primary causes of necrosis are inadequate arterial infl...
(Abstract)
Partial necrosis of pedicle skin flaps remains a substantial problem in plastic and reconstructive surgery. Ischemia may jeopardize skin flap survival and result in flap necrosis. The primary causes of necrosis are inadequate arterial inflow, insufficient venous outflow, or both. Therefore, we investigated the potential of suing adenovirus vector encoding for adenovirus VEGF (AdVEGF), adenovirus COMP-Ang1 (AdCOMP-Ang1) gene in an attempt to promote the viability of the superficial inferior epigastric artery flap model in a rat model. The flap was pedicled solely on the right inferior epigastric vessels. The flap was designed so that only the medial branch of the epigastric artery supplied blood to the flap. In result, there was a significant increase in mean percentage of survival flap area by 62.7%, 79.1%, 69.7% in flaps transfected with adenovirus VEGF, COMP-Ang1, coadministraion of VEGF and COMP-Ang1 at 3 days. There was a significant increase in mean percentage of survival flap area by 89.8%, 91.1%, 94.8% at 7 days, 95.6%, 94.8%, 96.3% at 14 days. H&E staining analyses revealed that blood vessels were formed after AdVEGF, AdCOMP-Ang1 or AdVEGF plus AdCOMP-Ang1 than AdLac Z. The results of this study suggest the possibility of using adenovirus-mediated VEGF, COMP-Ang1 gene therapy to promote therapeutic angiogenesis in patients who undergo reconstructive procedures.