• F M Rosenthal, L Cao, E Tanczos, J Kopp, C Andree, G B Stark, R Mertelsmann, and P Kulmburg.
• Department of Medicine I Hematology/Oncology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany.
• In Vivo. 1997 May 1;11(3):201-8.

BackgroundGrowth factors play an important role in tissue repair. While the effectiveness of growth factor therapy in animal wound healing models and limited human clinical trials has been demonstrated, the ideal method for their administration to the wound remains unclear. Experimental data suggest that the continuous presence in the early stages of wound repair is beneficial.Materials And MethodsWe have constructed a novel chimeric expression plasmid in which the biologically active portion of the human epidermal growth factor (EGF) gene is fused in-frame to the human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor signal sequence.ResultsClonally selected human fibroblasts transfected with this construct secrete biologically active EGF. After the transplantation of irradiated gene-transfected fibroblasts suspended in fibrin glue to murine full-thickness wounds, EGF can be demonstrated for at least seven days in the wounds, slowly decreasing from initially 470 pg/ml to 140 pg/ml on day 7. No EGF was found in the wound at day 14.ConclusionsA single application of irradiated EGF genetransfected fibroblasts to wounds can thus continuously deliver the transgene in vivo and could be used to administer drugs to the wound bed during the crucial first seven days of wound-healing.

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