Inadequate blood supply to the heart leads to progressive decline in heart function, and conventional surgical and interventional approaches to augment blood supply are not durable in the long term. This proposal seeks to modulate signaling by the angiogenic protein delta-like ligand 4 (DLL-4) to induce the formation of durable and mature native arterial blood vessels in the heart. This pilot small-animal study will pave way for application in larger animal models with the potential for translational application in the clinical realm by the PI, who is a cardiac surgeon-scientist.

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