Patent ID: 7214369

Claim:
An in vivo process for improving blood flow in a limb muscle tissue of a mammal comprising: a) inserting an injector into a blood vessel in the limb of the mammal; b) applying a device external to mammalian skin for compressing vessels in an area underneath the device thereby occluding fluid flow into and out of the limb; c) injecting a solution containing polynucleotides encoding a peptide or protein selected from the group consisting of an angiogenic factor and an arteriogenesis factor into the lumen of said blood vessel distal to the occlusion wherein the solution is retained within the limb, thereby increasing the volume of fluid in the limb and delivering the polynucleotides to skeletal muscle cells in the limb; and, d) expressing the polynucleotides in the skeletal muscle cells thereby improving said blood flow in said tissue.