Background: Impaired healing of war wounds remains an unsolved military medical problem as documented in reports from WW II and Vietnam. Growth factor treatment has the potential to enhance wound healing of various tissues relevant to military wounds. Gene therapy can continuously deliver growth factors deep within the tissue to maximally enhance healing. The potential of gene therapy has not been exploited because plasmid transfection efficiency has been very poor. We have recently demonstrated that electroporation of wound tissue dramatically increases transfection efficiency.
Objective/Hypothesis: We will test the hypothesis that electroporation-facilitated gene therapy with growth factors can improve wound healing. A militarily relevant animal model will be utilized.
Study Design: The proposed work will assess the ability of DNA plasmids for three different peptide growth factors (KGF1, PDGF, VEGF) separately and in combination to enhance delayed wound healing in a wound model.
Relevance: We will assess two types of militarily relevant wounds: abdominal wounds and loss of substance wounds. The electroporation device uses circuitry similar to that of a cardiac defibrillator. It costs about $ 5,000. It is compact, being the size of a briefcase. It is very suitable for deployment in a military setting. | 
