The Production and Characteristics of a Mouse's Embryonic Stem Cell Lineage, Transfected by the Glia Neurotrophic Factor and Gene Fused with the Green Fluorescent Protein Gene.

The influence that the expression of the human (glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF)) neurotrophic factor has on the morphology and proliferative activity of embryonic stem cells (SC) of a mouse with R1 lineage, as well as their ability to form embroid bodies (EB), has been studied. Before that, using a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) coupled with reverse transcription, it was shown that, in this very lineage of the embryonic SC, the expression of the receptors' genes is being fulfilled for the neurotropfic RET and GFRα1 glia factor. The mouse's embryonic SC lineage has been obtained, transfected by the human GDNF gene, and has been fused with the "green" fluorescent protein (GFP) gene. The presence of the expression of the human GDNF gene in the cells was shown by northern hybridization and the synthesis of its albuminous product by immunocitochemical coloration with the use of specific antibodies. The reliable slowing-down of the embriod-body formation by the embryonic SC transfected by the GDNF gene has been shown. No significant influence of the expression of the GDNF gene on the morphology and the proliferative activity of the transfected embryonic SCs has been found when compared with the control ones.

BFP protein expression in transfected embryonic stem cells.

Cultured mouse embryonic stem cells can be transfected with a reporter gene encoding blue fluorescent protein BFP and regulated by drosophila heat shock protein 70 promoter. This gene is activated after heating and synthesizes matrix RNA. Blue protein is synthesized under these conditions. The system for transfection of stem cells allows us to activate automatically the corresponding transgenes.