Phase Ⅱ rehabilitation/prevention of brain tumor: effect of the HSV-TK/ACV system mediated by cationic lipsome on the proliferative activity of human glioma cells / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Gene therapy is a popular topic in domestic and overseas studies on biological therapy for brain tumor.OBJECTIVE: By using a newly constructed eukaryotic expression vector of pCR3-TK, the effect of the HSV-TK/ACV system on the proliferative activity of human glioma cells was investigated.DESIGN: Experimental study based on cells.SETTING: Department of neurosurgery and department of oncology in a university hospital.MATERIALS The study was conducted at the National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology of Harbin Veterinary Research Institute from January to April in 2004. The eukaryotic expression vector of pCR3-TK was constructed by the author. The TJ905 strain was a gift from professor Pu Pei-yu, who worked in the Neurology Institute of Tianjin city. The nontransfected cells and the cells transfected with pCR3-Uni vector were set as controls.METHODS: By using Lipofectamine(a cationic liposome), the pCR3-Uni vector and the recombinant pCR3-TK plasmid(inserted with HSV-TK gene)were transfected into the human glioma cell strain-TJ905. Then the positive clones were picked out and were given ACV(50 mg/L) . Totally 72 hours later, the cover slips were collected and silver staining for nucleolus organizer regions(AgNORs) was performed.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: After the ACV treatment and AgNORs staining, the numbers of silver-stained granules in TJ905 cells with or without transfections were counted respectively.RESULTS: In those cells transfected with HSV-TK gene, after ACV treatment, a significant decreasing in proliferative activity could be observed, and the average numbers of the silver-stained granules in cells transfected with pCR3-Uni or pCR3-TK were 14.33 and 6.67 respectively( P ＜ 0.01).CONCLUSION: As an easy-to-operate method, AgNOR counting is helpful for the studies on the proliferative activity of cells and the investigations into the potential anti-tumor mechanism of the HSV-TK/ACV system.