Adenovirus-mediated VEGF-A gene transfer induces bone formation in vivo.

SPECIFIC AIMSLocal gene transfer offers a promising alternative for treatment of various acquired diseases. In orthopedics, potential targets for gene therapy are osteoporosis, arthritis, tissue repair, and tumors. In this paper we focus on osteoblast recruitment and activation by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) gene transfer to bone marrow cells in order to enhance bone repair and regeneration.PRINCIPAL FINDINGS1. Gene transfer efficiency in vitroViral and nonviral vectors were compared for gene transfer efficiency on osteoblast and osteosarcoma cell lines. Both vectors carried lacZ as a marker gene and detection was made using X-Gal staining. It was found that adenovirus was able to transfect 92.7% ± 1.0 of osteoblasts (HNO cell line) with MOI 500 and 97.7 ± 1.1 with MOI 1000. In osteosarcoma cell line (MG-63), the corresponding percentages were 46.7% ± 2.0 and 77.1% ± 1.7. Using plasmid (5 μg/50,000 cells)/Fugene complexes, the transfection efficiency in osteoblast cell line (HNO) was 5.7% ...