capillary permeability. As such, Ang-1 has a potential to become an effective therapeutic agent for treating various endothelium disorders, including several severe human pulmonary diseases. The efficacy of cell-based Ang-1 gene therapy for acute lung injury (ALI) has recently been studied in a rat model of ALI. The results of this study show that such therapy can markedly improve lung condition and suggest that Ang-1 therapy may represent a potential new strategy for the treatment and/or prevention of acute respiratory distress injury (ARDI), a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. Recombinant human ANG-1, derived from HeLa cells, is a C-terminal histidine tagged glycoprotein which migrates with an apparent molecular mass of 60.0
