Construction of stable coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor-expressing 3T3-L1 cells.

3T3-L1 cells have been used as a model to study the differentiation and physiology of adipocytes. Exogenous expression of proteins in these cells offers the prospect of understanding the protein's function(s) in adipose tissue. Viral vectors, in particular, adenovirus, have proven to be a powerful means for introduction of genes into many cell types. However, we have previously shown that 3T3-L1 cells are inefficiently transduced by adenovirus (Orlicky, D. J., and J. Schaack. 2001. J. Lipid Res. 42: 460-466). To overcome the inefficient transduction, we have stably introduced the gene-encoding coxsackie and adenovirus receptor (CAR), which was modified by deletion of the region encoding the cytoplasmic tail, into 3T3-L1 cells. 3T3-L1 CARDelta1 cells are transduced approximately 100-fold more efficiently than parental 3T3-L1 cells. 3T3-L1 CARDelta1 cells should prove to be a useful tool for examination of exogenous protein expression in fat cells.