Gene transfer into hematopoietic cells of mouse and its in vivo expression after transplantation.

We have shown previously that high-efficient gene transfer can be attained in primary hematopoietic cells using liposome-mediated gene transfer strategy. In order to examine the stability of gene expression mediated by this gene transduction protocol, we observed the expression of marker gene in vivo by using bone marrow transplantation (BMT) to engraft lethally irradiated mouse with the genetically modified hematopoietic cells. The results showed that the mouse transplanted with appropriated number of transduced cells remained alive and healthy. The PCR analysis and G418 selection of the spleen colonies and bone marrow cells isolated from lethally irradiated animals 15 days and 30 days after injection of genetically modified bone marrow cells showed that the progeny cells of the transduced hematopoietic stem cells still contained and expressed the transduced genes, suggesting that the hematopoietic system is at least partially re-constructed by the stem cells with marker gene and that the stable expression of foreign genes in vivo can be attained by using this easy and harmless transduction protocol. These findings provide experimental basis for clinician to further investigate the biology of marrow reconstruction and the mechanism of leukemia relapse after BMT.