Patent ID: 7029668

Claim:
A method for stimulating angiogenesis in-situ within a living tissue comprising vascular endothelial cells, said method comprising the steps of: transfecting vascular endothelial cells within a living tissue with a constructed expression vector such that the resulting transfected vascular endothelial cells overexpress discrete extracellular matrix heparan sulphate proteoglycan entities coded for by said constructed expression vector, said overexpressed proteoglycan entities being comprised of (i) an extracellular N-terminal portion which is located at and extends from a transfected vascular endothelial cell surface and binds heparan sulphates to form an extracellular matrix in-situ, said extracellular N-terminal portion being the expressed product of at least one first DNA sequence in the constructed expression vector coding for the extracellular domain of said proteoglycan entity expressed by a transfected vascular endothelial cell in-situ, (ii) a transmembrane medial portion which is located at and extends through a transfected vascular endothelial cell membrane and is joined with said extracellular N-terminal portion of said expressed proteoglycan entity, said transmembrane medial portion being the expressed product of at least one second DNA sequence in the constructed expression vector coding for the transmembrane domain of said proteoglycan entity expressed by a transfected vascular endothelial cell in-situ, and (iii) a syndecan-4 cytoplasmic portion present within the cytoplasm of a transfected vascular endothelial cell which is joined to said transmembrane portion and said extracellular N-terminal portion of said expressed proteoglycan entity, said syndecan-4 cytoplasmic portion being the expressed product of at least one third DNA sequence in the constructed expression vector coding for the cytoplasmic domain of the syndecan-4 molecule of said proteoglycan entity expressed by a transfected vascular endothelial cell in-situ; and allowing said transfected vascular endothelial cells bearing said overexpressed extracellular matrix proteoglycan entities to stimulate angiogenesis in-situ.