NATURAL WAY TO PREVENT CLOGGED ARTERIES
Balloon angioplasty—surgery to open blocked arteries—is performed on over 280,000 Americans’ each year. While the operation, which brings about unrestricted blood flow by expanding the arteries, is highly successful, it may also damage the vessel walls. And, if the body tries to repair the injury, cells at the site multiply, often creating a new blockage. Recent research at the University Of Washington School Of Medicine may have discovered a way to prevent the new blockages from developing.
Earlier studies have suggested that a natural substance, platelet-derived growth “factor (PGDF), plays an important role in the development of new blockages in angioplasty-repaired arteries. In order to put that theory to a test, researchers first had to find an antibody to PGDF They obtained the antibody by injecting goats with PGDF taken from humans. The goats’ immune systems then produced antibodies against PGDF.
Armed with the PGDF antibody, scientists then performed angioplasty surgery on about 40 rats. The balloon was inflated in an artery, causing damage to the vessel walls—the same thing that happens in human angioplasty. Researchers then injected half of the rats with the goat-produced PGDF antibody. The other rats were injected with a different goat-produced antibody. The results showed a 41 percent reduction in arterial thickening at the angioplasty site in all the rats who had received the PGDF antibody. There was no such reduction in any of the rats who were injected with a different antibody.
Scientists believe that if the PGDF antibody can eventually be successfully applied to humans, they will be making a great step forward in preventing some cases of clogged arteries.
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