Background--Vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) promotes angiogenesis but causes adverse side effects such as edema or tissue inflammation. VEGF-E, found in the genome of the Orf virus, specifically binds to VEGF receptor-2 and shows mitotic activity on endothelial cells. Recently, we created two forms of VEGF-E and human placental growth factor (PlGF) chimera genes (VEGF-E chimera #9 and VEGF-E chimera #33), which are humanized genes with VEGF-E function but showing less antigenicity.

Methods and Results--We examined potential proangiogenic activities of these chimera genes. Four types of expression plasmids (pCDNA3.1-LacZ, phVEGF-A, pVEGF-Echimera#9, and pVEGF-Echimera#33) were administered in a rat model of hindlimb ischemia. Either pVEGF-Echimera#9, pVEGF-Echimera#33, or phVEGF-A significantly increased the ratio of ischemic/normal hindlimb blood-flow compared with the control pCDNA3.1-LacZ treated group (by 1.5-fold, 1.5-fold, and 1.4-fold, respectively, P<0.05). Histochemical staining by alkaline phosphatase also revealed that either pVEGF-Echimera#9, pVEGF-Echimera#33, or phVEGF-A increased the capillary density compared with the pCDNA3.1-LacZ treated group (1.4-fold, 1.5-fold, and 1.5-fold, respectively, P<0.05). Furthermore, immunostaining for anti-ED1 revealed that fewer macrophages had infiltrated in both pVEGF-Echimera#9 and pVEGF-Echimera#33 groups compared with the phVEGF-A group (P<0.05).

Conclusions--Novel VEGF-E/human PlGF chimera genes, pVEGF-Echimera#9, and pVEGF-Echimera#33 significantly stimulated angiogenesis in response to tissue ischemia to an almost identical extent to that induced by phVEGF-A with fewer tissue inflammation responses.