Abstract:Objective:To investigate the effect of survivin antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ASODN) on intimal hyperplasia(IH) in vein graft in rats.Methods:Autogenous vein graft model was established in 60 Wistar rats by transplanting the interior jugular vein to common jugular artery using microsurgical technique. The rats were divided into 5 groups according to different processing methods, including survivin ASODN 50μg and 200μg, scramble ODN 200μg, control group and lipoectin+pluronic group. Vein graft samples were harvested at 1 or 2 weeks after surgery and histomorphologic methods were used to compare the degree of IH.Survivin mRNA was measured by RT-PCR. Western blotting and immunohistochemistry methods also were used to detect the expression of survivin and PCNA. Apoptosis of VSMC was dectected by TUNEL. Results:IH was evident within 1 to 2 weeks after vein grafting, but was markedly inhibited by 50μg of survivin ASODN(P<0.05), and even higher inhibition rate in 200μg of survivin ASODN group(P<0.05). However, no effect was seen in the other group. The expression of survivin mRNA was also inhibited significantly by survivin ASODN. Expression of survivin and PCNA decreased markedly in survivin ASODN group, but the positive cells of TUNEL increased significantly. Conclusions:Transfection of survivin ASODN can inhibit the IH of vein graft, which may be effecteol by the inhibition of expression of survivin and enhancement of VSMC apoptosis.