Patent Application: US-98891001-A

Abstract:
a method of gene therapy is described that will protect the hearts of patients against myocardial infarction . antioxidant enzymes are known to be cardioprotective , provided that these enzymes are administered before reperfusion . however , it has not previously been practical to administer antioxidant enzymes to patients at risk for myocardial infarction because the recombinant enzymes were expensive and required continuous intravenous administration . these limitations have been overcome by using gene therapy to provide a continuous source of antioxidant enzyme . when tested in carefully controlled pre - clinical studies , antioxidant gene therapy reduced the size of myocardial infarction by & gt ; 50 %. this marked reduction in infarct size could mean the difference between life and death for many patients , and would improve the quality of life for every person that survived myocardial infarction . this same approach may also be used by cardiothoracic surgeons to improve the functional recovery of donor hearts after cardiac transplantation .

Description:
considerable evidence indicates that reactive oxygen species ( ros ), such as superoxide anion (. o 2 − ) and hydrogen peroxide ( h 2 o 2 ), contribute importantly to myocardial ischemia / reperfusion injury [ 1 ]. when examining the role of ros , however , it is important to distinguish two forms of myocardial ischemia / reperfusion injury , namely , reversible postischemic dysfunction ( myocardial stunning ) and cell death ( mi ). because of the fundamental differences between these two processes , pathogenetic and pathophysiological information pertaining to one of them cannot be extrapolated to the other . indeed , while the role of ros in myocardial stunning is generally widely accepted [ 2 ], intense controversy persists regarding whether ros also participate in lethal ischemia / reperfusion injury ( mi , [ 1 ]). a number of studies have shown that iv administration of antioxidant enzymes ( e . g ., superoxide dismutase [ sod ] and catalase ) can reduce infarct size ; however , other studies have failed to demonstrate a protective effect [ 1 ]. the reasons underlying this discrepancy are unknown . we hypothesized that the inability of antioxidant enzymes to gain access to the intracellular space after iv administration may have contributed to these variable results , and postulated that the extracellular isoform of sod ( ec - sod ), which binds to heparan sulfate proteoglycans on cellular surfaces , might provide for more consistent cardioprotection than the freely - soluble form of the enzyme . another problem with the use of antioxidant enzymes to protect against mi is the fact that they need to be given parenterally and have short plasma half - lives . these limitations can potentially be overcome by using gene therapy to create an endogenous source of antioxidant protection . although numerous studies of ischemia / reperfuision injury have utilized antioxidant enzymes prepared by recombinant techniques [ 3 - 8 ], none of them has used gene therapy to protect intact animals against mi . the goal of this study was to compare the protection against mi afforded by a recombinant adenovirus ( ad5 ) that overexpresses ec - sod with that afforded by the late phase of ischemic preconditioning ( pc ). we have previously found that ad5 - mediated gene transfer of ec - sod protects against myocardial stunning in conscious rabbits [ 9 ]. however , the protective effects we observed against myocardial stunning could not necessarily be extrapolated to mi , since many interventions that alleviate myocardial stunning fail to reduce infarct size [ 1 , 2 ]. in both the previous and current studies , the liver was targeted for gene transfer to exploit the efficiency with which ad5 transfects hepatocytes after iv injection , and to preclude the possibility of an inflammatory response against ad5 [ 10 ] in the heart . a conscious rabbit model of mi [ 11 - 13 ] was employed to overcome limitations inherent in open - chest preparations that could interfere with the study of ischemia / reperfusion injury [ 14 , 15 ]. surgical preparation . all animal experiments were performed in accordance with institutional and federal guidelines ( dhhs publication no . [ nih ] 86 - 23 ). the conscious rabbit model of mi has been described previously [ 11 - 13 ]. briefly , pentobarbital anesthetized ( 35 mg / kg , iv ) new zealand white male rabbits ( weight , 2 . 1 ± 0 . 2 kg ) were instrumented under sterile conditions with a balloon occluder placed around a major branch of the left coronary artery , a 10 - mhz pulsed doppler ultrasonic crystal [ 16 ] in the center of the region to be rendered ischemic , and bipolar ecg leads on the chest wall . gentamicin was administered before surgery and on the 1st and 2nd postoperative days ( 0 . 7 mg / kg / d , im ). rabbits were allowed to recover for a minimum of 14 d after surgery . infarction protocol . throughout the protocol , lv systolic wall thickening ( wth ), range gate depth , and the ecg were continuously recorded on a chart recorder ( gould ta6000 , valley view , ohio ). diazepam ( 4 mg / kg , ip ) was administered 20 min before the onset of ischemia to relieve any stress caused by coronary occlusion . no antiarrhythmic agents were administered . the infarction protocol consisted of a 30 - min coronary artery occlusion followed by 3 d of reperfusion ( fig1 ). successful occlusions were verified by observing st - segment elevations and changes in the qrs complex on the ecgs and by paradoxical systolic wall thinning on the ultrasonic crystal recordings . ischemic preconditioning ( pc ). ischemic pc was induced in group ii with a sequence of six 4 - min coronary occlusions interspersed with 4 min of reperfusion performed 24 h before the 30 - min occlusion ( fig1 ). the proper execution of the occlusion / reperfusion protocol was evidenced by a 4 to 5 hour period of myocardial stunning in each animal ( assessed by pulsed doppler probe as previously described [ 16 ]). adenoviral vectors . the construction of the nuclear - localized lacz reporter virus ad5 / cmv / nls - lacz has previously been reported [ 17 ], as has the construction of the recombinant adenovirus [ 9 ] that expresses the human cdna encoding ec - sod [ 18 ]. each viral isolate was plaque - purified , verified by restriction analysis , and evaluated for its potential to overexpress enzymatic activity in 293 cells . purified viral clones were propagated in 293 cells , isolated , concentrated and titered by plaque assay according to graham and prevec [ 19 ]. expression of ec - sod . ad5 - mediated expression of ec - sod at the level of mrna accumulation was confirmed by infecting cos cells at an moi of 10 and harvesting the cells 2 days later for northern analysis . five rabbits were employed to assess the expression of ec - sod mrna in vivo . one of these rabbits was an untreated rabbit which exemplified group i while the remaining four rabbits were treated with 2 × 10 8 pfu / kg of ad5 / cmv / ec - sod 3 d prior to euthanasia to simulate the gene therapy protocol ( group iv ). total rna was extracted from tissue samples using standard procedures ( rnaeasy , qiagen inc ., valencia , calif . ), separated by electrophoresis , and blotted onto a nylon membrane ( brightstar - plus , ambion inc ., austin , tex .). a 32 p - labeled riboprobe specific for human ec - sod ( nt 1020 through 1389 , [ 18 ]) was prepared for northern analysis using commercial reagents ( maxiscript , ambion inc ., austin , tex .). northern blots were imaged with a storm 840 phosphorimager ( molecular dynamics , sunnyvale , calif .) and quantitated using integrated software ( imagequant , version 4 . 2 ). experimental design . three days before the induction of mi , rabbits were randomly assigned to one of four groups . rabbits in either the control - treated group ( group iii ) or the gene therapy group ( group iv ) were injected with 2 × 10 8 pfu / kg of recombinant adenovirus via ear vein ( fig1 ). this particular dose was chosen because the same amount of ad5 / cmv / ec - sod had previously protected conscious rabbits against myocardial stunning [ 9 ]. in both the previous and the current studies , heparin was administered 2 h before the first occlusion to release ec - sod from the liver . protamine was injected prior to coronary occlusion to reverse the effects of heparin . both groups iii and iv were subjected to this same regimen ( i . e ., ad5 injection 3 d prior to coronary occlusion , heparin [ 2000 u / kg , iv ] 2 h prior to coronary occlusion , and protamine [ 10 mg / kg , iv ] over the last 8 min prior to coronary occlusion ). measurement of region at risk and infarct size . at the conclusion of the study , rabbits were treated with heparin ( 2000 u / kg , iv ), anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital ( 50 mg / kg , iv ) and euthanized with a bolus of kcl . the heart was excised and the size of the ischemic - reperfused region ( region at risk ) was determined by tying the coronary artery at the site of the previous occlusion and perfusing the aortic root for 2 min with a 5 % solution of phthalo blue dye at a pressure of 70 mmhg using a langendorff apparatus [ 11 - 13 ]. the heart was then cut into 6 - 7 transverse slices , which were incubated for 10 min at 37 ° c . in a 1 % solution of triphenyltetrazolium chloride in phosphate buffer ( ph = 7 . 4 ). all atrial and right ventricular tissues were removed , after which the slices were weighed , fixed in a 10 % solution of neutral buffered formaldehyde , and photographed . developed 35 mm slides were projected at 10 × magnification and the borders of the infarcted , ischemic / reperfused and nonischemic regions were traced onto paper . the traces were digitized on a flatbed scanner , the corresponding areas were determined by computerized planimetry ( adobe photoshop , version 4 . 0 ) and infarct size was calculated as a percentage of the region at risk [ 11 - 13 ]. statistical analysis . data are reported as means ± sem . for intergroup comparisons , data were analyzed by either one - way or two - way repeated - measures anova ( time and group ), as appropriate , followed by unpaired student &# 39 ; s t - tests with the bonferroni correction . the relationship between infarct size and risk region size was compared among groups with analysis of covariance ( ancova ) using the size of the risk region as the covariate [ 12 ]. the correlation between infarct size and risk region size was assessed by linear regression using the least - squares method . all statistical analyses were performed using the sas software system [ 20 ]. expression of ec - sod . as shown in fig2 a , mrna from cos cells infected with ad5 / cmv / ec - sod yielded a discrete band when hybridized with a riboprobe specific for human ec - sod mrna ( lane 1 ). this positive control band corresponded to abundant message in livers from rabbits treated with ad5 / cmv / ec - sod ( lanes 4 - 7 ). no signal was detected in the liver ( lane 3 ) or the heart ( lane 8 ) of a normal , untreated rabbit . as anticipated , no human ec - sod mrna was detected in the hearts of rabbits treated with ad5 / cmv / ec - sod ( lanes 9 - 12 ), even though abundant message was detected in livers from these same animals ( lanes 4 - 7 ). as demonstrated previously , the recombinant ec - sod protein is expressed in the liver , secreted from hepatocytes and then displaced by heparin for transport through the bloodstream to the heart and other organs [ 9 ]. in fig2 b , a quantitative analysis of the northern blot demonstrates that iv injection of ad5 / cmv / ec - sod gave rise to reproducible levels of human ec - sod mrna expression in the livers of experimental rabbits . exclusions and arrhythmias . of the 51 rabbits instrumented , 13 were assigned to group i , 12 to group ii , 15 to group iii and 11 to group iv . four rabbits died of ventricular fibrillation during coronary occlusion ( 2 in group i and 2 in group ii ). two rabbits in group iii were excluded due to technical problems with the postmortem analysis , and 3 rabbits ( 1 in group i and 2 in group iii ) were excluded because of failure of the balloon occluder . thus a total of 10 rabbits completed the experimental protocol in group i , 10 in group ii , 11 in group iii , and 11 in group iv . the incidence of ventricular fibrillation during the 30 - min occlusion and ventricular tachycardia following reperfusion did not differ significantly between the control and treated groups . region at risk and infarct size . on the day of the 30 - min occlusion , there were no significant differences in baseline systolic thickening fraction among the four groups ( 39 . 7 ± 2 . 5 %, 35 . 7 ± 5 . 1 %, 35 . 4 ± 2 . 5 % and 35 . 7 ± 2 . 6 % in groups i , ii , iii and iv , respectively ). similarly , there were no appreciable differences among groups with respect to lv weight , region at risk , or region at risk as a percentage of lv weight . however , mean infarct size was 50 % smaller in the ischemic pc group ( group ii ) compared with the untreated group ( group i ) ( 28 . 6 ± 3 . 2 % vs . 56 . 9 ± 5 . 9 % of the region at risk , respectively ; p & lt ; 0 . 01 [ fig3 ]), indicating a late pc effect against mi . in the gene therapy group ( group iv ), the average infarct size was 57 % smaller than in the control - treated group ( group iii ) ( 25 . 1 ± 4 . 3 % vs . 58 . 3 ± 5 . 0 %, respectively ; p & lt ; 0 . 01 [ fig3 ]), indicating that the expression of ec - sod ( as opposed to nls - lacz ) was responsible for the marked cardioprotective effect . the similarity in infarct size between the ischemic pc group ( 28 . 6 ± 3 . 2 %) and the gene therapy group ( 25 . 1 ± 4 . 3 %) indicates that the protective effect of gene therapy was comparable to that induced by the late phase of ischemic pc . the similarity in infarct size between the untreated group ( 56 . 9 ± 5 . 9 %) and the control - treated group ( 58 . 3 ± 5 . 0 %) indicates that neither the administration of an irrelevant adenoviral vector nor the injections of heparin and / or protamine had significant effects on infarct size . in all groups , the size of the infarction was positively and linearly related to the size of the region at risk ( fig4 ). as expected [ 10 ], the regression line was shifted to the right in the ischemic pc group as compared with the control groups ( groups i and ii )( p = 0 . 05 by ancova , fig4 ). in the group pretreated with antioxidant gene therapy ( group iv ), the regression line was again significantly shifted to the right compared with the control groups ( p & lt ; 0 . 05 by ancova , fig4 ) and was virtually indistinguishable from that of the ischemic pc group , indicating that for any given size of the region at risk , the infarct size was reduced by antioxidant gene therapy and that the magnitude of this effect was similar to that induced by ischemic pc . the use of in vivo gene transfer to elevate systemic levels of therapeutic proteins has considerable potential , particularly if therapeutic levels can be achieved without adverse side - effects . the present study demonstrates that gene therapy with ec - sod protects conscious rabbits against mi , indicating that this approach can be effectively used to enhance endogenous antioxidant defenses and limit lethal myocellular injury during ischemia / reperfusion in vivo . while many studies have found that antioxidant enzymes can protect the heart against ischemia / reperfusion injury ( reviewed in [ 1 ]), to our knowledge , this is the first demonstration that the heart can be protected against mi with the use of antioxidant gene therapy , which can provide a sustained ( and potentially even permanent ) supply of antioxidant proteins . the current study complements earlier work from our laboratory demonstrating that ec - sod gene therapy attenuates myocardial stunning in a similar conscious rabbit model [ 9 ]. together , these studies suggest that gene therapy with ec - sod offers considerable potential for protecting the heart against both reversible ( myocardial stunning ) and irreversible ( mi ) ischemia / reperfusion injury . because ec - sod is released into the systemic circulation and because this release can be precisely manipulated with heparin and protamine , these studies suggest a general methodological approach for controlling gene therapy at the post - translational level and for simultaneously protecting multiple tissues from ros - mediated injury . methodological considerations . the rabbit model employed in this study is well characterized with respect to the infarct - sparing effects of ischemic pc [ 11 - 13 ], thereby providing a useful reference to compare with the effects of ec - sod gene therapy . the conscious preparation avoids a number of factors that could interfere with the assessment of postischemic myocardial dysfunction , such as anesthesia , surgical trauma , fluctuations in body temperature , abnormal hemodynamic conditions , elevated catecholamine levels , cytokine release , etc . [ 14 , 15 ]. most importantly , the use of a conscious model avoids the exaggerated oxyradical formation observed in open - chest animals [ 14 ], which could possibly overwhelm the antioxidant therapy under investigation . the choice of the antioxidant enzyme was also a critical methodological consideration in the current study . many of the animal studies that have examined the role of antioxidant enzymes in protecting the myocardium against ischemia / reperfusion injury utilized continuous iv infusion of recombinant cu / zn - sod or mn - sod protein , and thus examined the function of intracellular enzymes delivered to the extracellular space . however , careful examination of the distribution kinetics of cu / zn - sod indicates that the interstitial levels of this enzyme ( rather than the plasma levels ) are primarily responsible for protection against myocardial ischemia / reperfusion injury [ 8 ]. this being the case , it was reasonable to consider an isoform of sod that has natural affinity for the interstitial space . the selection of ec - sod for these studies was also influenced by the fact that it is the only isoform of sod that is secreted from cells , and is thus uniquely suited for hepatic production and systemic distribution . the possibility of an inflammatory response against the first - generation ad5 vector was a major factor in the decision to target gene transfer to another organ besides the heart . unlike the heart , the liver has a profound regenerative capacity , and remarkably high frequencies of ad5 - mediated transfection (& gt ; 90 %) can easily be obtained by simple iv injection without compromising hepatic function [ 21 ]. not only is the liver an opportune target for ad5 , but this strategy served to alleviate concerns regarding the possibility of inflammation in the heart and its potential impact on ischemic pc and mi . previous studies of the cardioprotective effects of ec - sod . numerous studies have examined whether cu / zn - sod and mn - sod can limit tissue damage after coronary occlusion [ 1 ]. however , comparatively few investigations have examined the effect of ec - sod on myocardial ischemia / reperfusion injury and fewer still have been conducted in intact animals . wahlund et al . [ 4 ] reported that ec - sod reduced creatine kinase release in rats subjected to 10 min of coronary occlusion and 24 h of reperfusion . hatori et al . [ 5 ] found that retroinfusion of purified , recombinant ec - sod protein into the great cardiac vein decreased the size of mis in open - chest pigs subjected to coronary occlusion , and that the cardioprotection provided by the combination of catalase with ec - sod was no greater than that provided by ec - sod alone . these results are congruent with our finding that ec - sod was effective in protecting against mi , but the present study differs in that we examined ec - sod produced as a result of gene therapy in a conscious animal model of mi . thus , the current study may bear some clinical relevance , particularly when one considers that gene therapy has the potential to provide a sustained source of antioxidant enzyme over a period of weeks or even months . chen et al . [ 7 ] recently found that hearts isolated from transgenic mice overexpressing human ec - sod exhibited enhanced postischemic myocontractile function . this cardioprotective effect is consistent with our study ; furthermore , the five - fold elevation in ec - sod levels in this study is comparable to that obtained in our rabbit model of gene therapy [ 9 ]. however , results obtained from isolated , globally - ischemic hearts may not be as clinically - relevant as results from intact hearts in conscious animals . finally , previous work from our laboratory described an ec - sod gene therapy regimen capable of reducing myocardial stunning by approximately 50 % ( 9 ). this same study determined that ad5 / cmv / ec - sod ( at a dose of 2 × 10 8 pfu / kg , iv ) increased total liver sod activity by 4 . 4 fold , that subsequent heparin administration led to a 2 - fold increase in total plasma sod activity , and that total sod activity in the heart was increased 5 . 4 - fold as a result of these manipulations . current study . the current report builds upon previous work [ 9 ] by applying the same ec - sod gene therapy regimen in a model of mi ( fig1 ). as shown in fig2 northern blot analysis of rabbits treated 3 days previously with ad5 / cmv / ec - sod revealed consistent levels of human ec - sod mrna expression in liver tissue . as summarized in fig3 the same therapeutic strategy that protected against myocardial stunning in our previous study ( 9 ) also protected the heart against irreversible postischemic dysfunction — reducing the size of mi by approximately 50 %. remarkably , this level of protection was similar to that afforded by the late phase of ischemic pc . taken together with our previous study [ 9 ], the finding that ec - sod gene therapy affords robust protection against mi implicates ros as important mediators not only of reversible contractile dysfunction ( myocardial stunning ) but also of irreversible ischemia - reperfusion injury ( mi ). thus , the present observations significantly broaden the potential clinical usefulness of ec - sod gene therapy and also have important pathophysiological implications regarding the role of ros in lethal ischemia - reperfusion injury . the powerful protection afforded by ad5 / cmv / ec - sod in this investigation was somewhat unanticipated because the effectiveness of sod in limiting infarct size has been repeatedly questioned [ 1 ]. indeed , while our results are consistent with previous investigations of ec - sod [ 4 - 8 ], they are seemingly in contrast with several previous studies of cu / zn - sod and mn - sod which failed to detect significant cardioprotection against infarction ( reviewed in [ 1 ]). because of the numerous methodological differences in the experimental design of these studies , it is impossible to identify the precise reason ( s ) for the discrepancy . one plausible explanation involves the properties of the antioxidant enzymes examined , namely , ec - sod vs . cu / zn - sod or mn - sod . while cu / zn - sod and mn - sod are freely diffusible in the plasma compartment and in the interstitial space within the myocardium , ec - sod binds to heparan sulfate proteoglycans [ 22 ] present on the endothelial glycocalyx , in the extracellular matrix , and on the sarcolemma of cardiomyocytes , thereby providing effective protection against . o 2 − in the interstitium and on vulnerable cellular surfaces . these strategic locations of the enzyme may enable it to inactivate . o 2 − before it can cause extensive tissue damage . thus , we propose that the failure of previous studies to detect a protective action of cu / zn - sod and mn - sod in models of mi may have been caused , at least in part , by the relative inability of these proteins to gain access to injurious . o 2 − . another difference from previous studies is that ec - sod released from the liver remained in the myocardium for a sustained period of time following coronary reperfusion [ 9 ], whereas cu / zn - sod and mn - sod are quickly cleared from the circulation . conclusions . the present study demonstrates that gene therapy can be used to protect conscious rabbits from mi with the use of a single antioxidant enzyme ( ec - sod ). the efficacy of ec - sod in protecting the myocardium against ischemia / reperfusion injury contrasts with the lack of consistent protection observed with cu / zn - sod or mn - sod and might be attributed to the extended half - life and / or the extracellular - binding properties of this unique antioxidant enzyme [ 22 ]. the present results not only implicate ros in the genesis of lethal ischemia / reperfusion injury in the conscious animal , but also have significant clinical implications for the development of novel cardioprotective strategies . 1 . bolli r . oxygen - derived free radicals and myocardial reperfusion injury : an overview . cardiovasc drugs ther . 1991 ; 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