EXPRESSION OF ADENOVIRUS-MEDIATED ESCHERICHIA-COLI LACZ GENE IN SKELETAL-MUSCLES AND SPINAL MOTOR-NEURONS OF TRANSGENIC MICE WITH A MUTANT SUPEROXIDE-DISMUTASE GENE

A replication-defective recombinant adenoviral vector containing E. co li lacZ gene was injected into the right biceps brachii muscles of tra nsgenic mice carrying mutant human Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) g ene and non-transgenic wild-type mice at 27 weeks of age. Although the transgenic mice showed remarkable neurogenic muscular changes and a m arked motor neuron loss in the anterior horn of spinal cord, the lacZ gene was widely expressed in all the injected muscles of transgenic mi ce as well as of wild-type mice at 7 days after the injection. In one transgenic and two wild-type mice, the lacZ gene expression was first detected in a few motor neurons of right lower cervical cord (C5-C6). These results demonstrate that an adenovirus-mediated foreign gene is transferred and expressed in skeletal muscles both of normal and trans genic mice model for familiar amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FALS), an d also, in the spinal motor neurons, may be transferred by retrograde transport from innervated muscles. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland L td.