Basic fibroblast growth factor: its role in the control of smooth muscle cell migration

The formation of an intimal lesion in an injured artery is the consequence of the replication and migration of smooth muscle cells. Recent studies have implicated basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) as an important mediator of replication in the arterial media, and platelet-derived growth factor as an important mediator of migration. However, the degree of arterial trauma produced during injury has a significant influence on the time of onset of intimal thickening, suggesting that factors released from damaged smooth muscle cells may affect migration. We have investigated the role of one of these factors, bFGF, in smooth muscle cell migration in vivo. We found that 1) deendothelialization of the rat carotid artery results in significantly more migration when it is accompanied by traumatic injury to the underlying smooth muscle; 2) the rate of migration in arteries that have been gently deendothelialized is significantly stimulated by systemic injection of bFGF; and 3) inhibition of bFGF with a blocking antibody significantly reduces the amount of migration after traumatic deendothelializing injury with a balloon catheter. These findings suggest that bFGF plays an important role in the mediation of smooth muscle cell migration after arterial injury.