Enhance Tissue FIap Survival by INtracellular Delivery of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1α

Tissue ap has been widely applied in head and neck surgery to repair tissue defects resulting from focal or organ resection. Ischemic necrosis usually becomes the main complication in the hypoxic grafts. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) could be obvi-ously activated and rapidly accumulated under hypoxic conditions. Recent studies have indicated that HIF-1α could accelerate revascularization and attenuate cellular ische-mia/reperfusion injury in the grafted tissue via activating the HIF-1α dependent signal transduction pathways. Moreover, HIF-1α plays a pivotal role in hypoxic/ischemic pre-conditioning for elevating cellular tolerability to a subsequent lethal hypoxic/ischemic injury. Therefore, we postulate that intracellular delivery of adeno-associated viral human HIF-1α gene (lacking ODD domain) will offer potential as a novel means to en-hance tissue ap survival.