Nerve Growth Factor pretreatment promotes vasculogenesis in rats after myocardial infarction

To investigate the effects of NGF(Nerve Growth Factor) pretreatment on density of new vessels of acute myocardial infaction in rats. 60 male adult Wistar rats were randomly classified into three groups: the control (n=20), non-NGF (n=20) and NGF(n=20) groups. The NGF group was injected NGF (0.5μg/kg) via caudal vena. Then we performed left anterior descending coronary artery(LAD) ligation, all the rats were sacrificed at 7 days postsurgery. In this study we observe the morphologic changes of myocardial pathology and the serum biochemical changes in each group, including CK-MB, LDH and CnTI; To measure the expression of CD34, VEGF and KDR/flk-1 we use immunohistology and RT-PCR. Compared with the control group and the non-NGF group, the NGF group has a significant higher density of vessel(P<;0.01). Our results indicated that NGF pretreatment can enhance the density of new vessels, promote the vasculogenesis and lessen the myocardial damage in rats.