DIFFERENTIAL SHORT-TERM TRANSDUCTION EFFICIENCY OF ADULT VERSUS NEWBORN MOUSE-TISSUES BY ADENOVIRAL RECOMBINANTS

We demonstrated different transduction efficiency in several major org ans of the immature (newborn) versus mature (adult) mice using adenovi ral recombinants containing expression cassettes for either firefly lu ciferase or bacterial beta-galactosidase reporter genes. The studied t issues included skeletal muscle, heart, brain, lung, kidney, and Liver . The transduction efficiency in all tissues, especially skeletal musc le, was significantly less in adults than in newborns, with two except ions. In the heart, transduction efficiency was the same in newborns a nd adults, while in brain, it was greater in the adult than in the new born. The cited differences in transduction efficiencies between newbo rn and adult tissues applied approximately equally to both reporter ge nes. The alpha(v) integrin level showed the same bend as the transduct ion efficiency in all tissues, except the heart. Polymerase chain reac tion showed a specific adenoviral product in proportion to the reporte r gene expression in muscle, heart, and brain. The results of this stu dy should be considered in designing gene therapy strategies in geneti c diseases. (C) 1995 Academic Press,Inc.