Vascular BioSciences Announces Publication Of "Vascular Histomolecular Analysis By Sequential Endoarterial Biopsy In A Shunt Model Of Pulmonary Hypertension"

Online, April 10, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Vascular BioSciences announces the publication of "Vascular Histomolecular Analysis By Sequential Endoarterial Biopsy in a Shunt Model of Pulmonary Hypertension" to the current issue of the Pulmonary Circulation, Volume 3, Number 1, January to March 2013, pp. 50-57 by Abraham Rothman, Robert G. Wiencek, William N. Evans, Humberto Restrepo, Valeri Sarukhanov, Erkki Ruoslahti, Roy Williams, and David Mann. This article details how endoarterial biopsy provides a new method of assessing pulmonary vascular histology and gene expression in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Percutaneous pulmonary endoarterial biopsy coupled with histologic and molecular analysis represents a potential new paradigm for diagnosis and potential treatment of PAH. This analysis could identify novel applications for existing and new PAH drugs. The detection of stage- and disease-specific variation in gene expression could lead to individualized therapies.

Histomolecular analysis could become a routine component of the diagnostic information obtained in patients with pulmonar vascular diseases at the time of cardiac catherterization. In addition to obtaining pressures, cardiac output, calculation of pulmonary vascular resistance, angiography and vasodilator testing, endoarterial biopsy with histologic and molecular analysis would add a whole new dimension of biologic information to aid in diagnosis and choice of therapy.

Dr. Abraham Rothman, M.D., of the Children's Heart Center, Nevada and Professor of Medicine at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and study first author states, "We describe a new model for endovascular histomolecular analysis in PAH. This technique could improve out understanding of the mechanisms associated with experimental and clinical PAH and identify novel drug targets and detect stage- and disease-specific variations in gene expression."

Vascular BioSciences CEO and study co-author David Mann, commented, "Performing transcriptional profiling of biopsies has long been a hallmark of modern cancer care. This study extends that paradigm to pulmonary vascular diseases and can also be applied to diseases affecting other vascular beds."