Recent progress in molecular and cellular biology has developed numerous effective cardiovascular drugs. However, there are still a number of diseases for which no known effective therapy exists, such as peripheral arterial disease, ischaemic heart disease and vascular bypass graft occlusion. Currently, gene therapy is emerging as a potential strategy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease to treat such diseases despite its limitation. The first human trial in cardiovascular disease was started in 1994 to treat peripheral vascular disease using vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Since then, many different potent angiogenic growth factors have been tested clinically to treat peripheral arterial disease and ischaemic heart disease. Improvement of clinical symptoms in peripheral arterial disease and ischaemic heart disease has been reported. In addition, another strategy for combating disease processes is to target transcriptional process, that has been tested in a human trial.