Gene therapy for myocardial ischemia using the hypoxia-inducible double plasmid system.

There are repeated ischemic events and nonischemic intervals in the heart affected by coronary artery disease. In the current study, we designed a hypoxia-inducible double plasmid system. By using a hypoxia response element, this system can be switched on by low oxygen but turned off by normal oxygen tension. Furthermore, the design of the double plasmid system, which contains a transactivator plasmid and a reporter plasmid, dramatically amplified the gene expression. This system could be used to carry cardioprotective genes for effective and regulated gene therapy for the ischemic heart.