Gene Therapy as a Modern Method of Treating Naturally Occurring Tendinitis and Desmitis in Horses

Tendon and ligament injuries have always been complex to treat, with recovery often taking many months, if successful at all. This chapter looks at recent work undertaken using regenerative medicine, specifically gene therapy and the advances that have been made in equine therapy. It looks at the process from plasmid construction, in vitro testing through to trialing the equine-specific plasmid construct in horses with superficial digital flexor tendon (tendinitis) and suspensory ligament branch injuries. It also looks at the rationale for utilizing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF164) and a basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF2) for these trials and the cellular effects and potential mechanisms of actions.