Gene delivery by adenoviruses.

Adenoviruses have a number advantages as gene delivery vectors, including ability to transduce a wide variety of non-dividing and dividing cells with high efficiency, relative ease of construction, and ability to be purified as high-titer viral stocks. These characteristics make adenoviruses particularly attractive for over-expressing specific genes in vitro and for evaluating in vivo biological activity in animal models. In this chapter, procedures will be described for adenovirus construction and virus delivery to in vivo sites for measurement of osteogenic activity.