ArticlePloS one2026
Reappraisal of a historical porfimer sodium photodynamic therapy study for vascular restenosis: Efficacy, high procedural mortality, and methodological insights from a rabbit balloon-injury model.
Article in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRestenosis driven by intimal hyperplasia remains a major limitation of peripheral arterial intervention. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using porfimer sodium (Photofrin®) demonstrated promising preclinical efficacy in the 1990s; however, its translation into clinical vascular practice has been stalled. We reappraised a historical pilot dataset to evaluate both biological efficacy and procedural feasibility.
methodsIn a rabbit model of bilateral femoral artery balloon injury (10 animals initiated), one artery per animal received intraluminal PDT (630 nm, ~ 5.6 J/cm²) 48 h after intramuscular porfimer sodium administration (2 mg/kg), while the contralateral artery served as an internal control. Histomorphometric analysis of the intima-media ratio (IMR) was performed 21 days after injury.
resultsThe procedural feasibility of this approach is severely limited. Only three of the ten animals yielded analyzable paired arterial samples because of high intraoperative mortality (40%) and postoperative complications. In surviving animals, PDT-treated arteries demonstrated a consistent and marked suppression of neointimal hyperplasia compared with controls (IMR 0.29 ± 0.07 vs. 1.65 ± 0.55; P < 0.001), corresponding to a median IMR reduction of 82%.
conclusionsThis reappraisal confirms the potent biological effects of porfimer sodium-mediated PDT on neointimal hyperplasia. However, the principal contribution of this study lies in the transparent documentation of critical translational barriers, particularly the unsustainable procedural mortality associated with this model of bilateral injury. By providing detailed dosimetry parameters and a candid feasibility analysis, this study offers methodological insights to guide the design of safer and more translatable preclinical vascular PDT studies in the future.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.