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Figure 1. Microenvironmental concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) determine blood flow improvement in ischemia. Regional blood flow was measured in the ischemic leg 14 days after surgical induction of hind limb ischemia using microspheres (n=9/group). Blood flow in ischemic legs (expressed as percentage of the nonischemic contralateral leg) was severely reduced in mice injected with vehicle or control myoblasts. Implantation of the parental polyclonal population of VEGF-expressing myoblasts improved blood flow only modestly (*P <0.05 vs. controls). The 100% clone markedly improved blood flow in the ischemic leg to a level comparable with the contralateral nonischemic leg (**P <0.01 vs. controls; P <0.05 vs. polyclonal VEGF myoblasts). In contrast, neither the 10% nor the 180% clone improved blood flow significantly.
