Grant: Operating Grant

Peripheral arterial disease is a condition in which arteries in areas such as the lower leg become blocked. This blockage results in the cells in the tissue fed by the blood in the artery becoming starved, leading to pain, loss of function, and local cell death. The long-term outcome of this disease is amputation of the afflicted limb. One approach to treating this condition is to locally deliver protein drugs that initiate and control the generation of new blood vessels into the area surrounding the blocked artery. These new vessels will feed the tissue that is being starved. To do this, the protein drugs need to be delivered over a period of weeks, and current methods of accomplishing this objective are ineffective. We will examine the possibility of using a low viscosity, biodegradable polymer as an effective delivery vehicle for these protein drugs.