Is vascular endothelial growth factor-A-induced chemotaxis of monocytes attenuated in patients with diabetes mellitus : A potential predictor for the individual capacity to develop collaterals?
The cellular response of monocytes to VEGF-A is attenuated in diabetic patients because of a downstream signal transduction defect. These data suggest that monocytes are important in arteriogenesis and that their ability to migrate might be critical to the arteriogenic response. Thus, we resolved a fundamental mechanism involved in the problem of impaired collateral formation in diabetic patients.
Transplantation of encapsulated xenogeneic hepatocytes resulted in immunization of the host with production of anti-hepatocyte and anti-albumin antibodies. However, hepatocytes could be efficiently protected by the membrane and remained viable and functional during the study.