Susceptibility To Cardiac Arrhythmias And Sympathetic Nerve Growth In Vegf-B Overexpressing Myocardium

Abstract VEGF-B gene therapy is a promising proangiogenic treatment for ischemic heart disease, but unexpectedly, we found that high doses of VEGF-B promote ventricular arrhythmias (VA).VEGF-B knockout, αMHC-VEGF-B transgenic mice, and pigs transduced intramyocardially with adenoviral (Ad)VEGF- B186 were studied.Immunostaining showed a 2-fold increase in the number of nerves (76 vs.39 in controls, nerves/field,p