Construction of pIRES2-AcGFP1-CD eukaryotic expression plasmid and its expression in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

Fei SONG; Yiqu CHEN; Xuehu MA; Dan GE; Tianqing LIU; Yufang MA; Zhanfeng CUI

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are easily isolated and amplified, and facilitate the exogenous gene transfer and expression. In the human medicine, it is believed that BMSCs are ideal therapeutic cells and target cells in the gene therapy.

OBJECTIVE:

To investigate liposome-mediated cytosine deaminase (CD) gene transfecting rabbit BMSCs and its gene expression.

DESIGN:

A single sample observation.

SETTING:

Dalian Research and Development Center for Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering; Department of Biochemistry, College of Basic Medical Science, Dalian Medical University.MATERIALS This study was performed at in the Dalian Research and Development Center for Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering; Department of Biochemistry, College of Basic Medical Science, Dalian Medical University from March 2006 to June 2007. New Zealand big-ear white rabbits of either gender, weighing 2.0-2.5 kg, with the age of 5 months old, were included in this study.

METHODS:

The CD gene was obtained from E.coli JM109 DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The fragment was cloned into pMD19-T vector. After restriction enzyme BamHI/XhoI digestion analysis and DNA sequence analysis, pIRES2-AcGFP1-CD eukaryotic expression plasmid was constructed. Meanwhile, BMSCs were harvested, cultured and identified. After enzyme digestion of eukaryotic expression plasmid, the rabbit BMSCs were transfected by Lipofectamine 2000-mediated method. Twenty-four hours after transfection, expression of green fluorescent protein was observed under an inverted fluorescent microscope. MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

Construction of eukaryotic expression plasmid and identification of CD gene-transferred BMSCs.

RESULTS:

CD gene was cloned and connected to eukaryotic expression plasmid with green fluorescence. Twenty-four hours after transfecting rabbit BMSCs, it was found under an inverted microscope that under the excitation of 488 nm blue light, green fluorescence appeared in the pIRES2-AcGFP1-CD and pIRES2-AcGFP1 empty-plasmid transfected BMSCs, but not in the non-transfected ones. It indicates that CD gene successfully transferred BMSCs.

CONCLUSION:

BMSCs are ideal vectors in the CD gene therapy.