Letter Regarding Article by Luo et al, “Adenovirus-Mediated Expression of β-Adrenergic Receptor Kinase C-Terminus Reduces Intimal Hyperplasia and Luminal Stenosis of Arteriovenous Polytetrafluoroethylene Grafts in Pigs”

Abstract

To the Editor: With great interest we have read the article by Luo and coworkers1 in which they described a reduction of intimal hyperplasia and luminal stenosis after adenoviral transduction of βARKct in a pig model of ePTFE arteriovenous (AV) graft failure. This study confirms the potential of gene therapeutic approaches to prevent stenosis in AV grafts for hemodialysis.2 An intriguing finding was the very low patency rate in the control group, which declined to 37.5% after 4 weeks. This is in sharp contrast to the 100% patency rate after 4 weeks in similar experiments performed in our laboratory.3 The authors propose that “different structure” of the AV grafts between the studies may have contributed to the unexpectedly large discrepancy in patency rates. We believe, however, that other differences in …