Composition and method for stimulating angiogenesis, stimulating myogenesis,upregulating angiogenic factors and angiopoietins, and treating the muscularand vascular complications of diabetes. Overall, the embodiments of theinvention can be accomplished by delivering a heterologous nucleic acidsequence encoding insulin-like growth factor (~IGF-I~) or a functionalbiological equivalent thereof into the cells of the subject and allowingexpression of the encoded gene to occur while the modified cells are withinthe subject. The nucleic acid sequence may be delivered by a vector systemincluding a synthetic myogenic promoter and a 3~ untranslated region. Thepreferred method to deliver the constitutive or inducible nucleic acidencoding sequences of IGF-I or the functional biological equivalents thereofis directly into the cells of the subject by the process of in vivoelectroporation.
