List:
New viral technology?
"self-inactivating retrovirus" -- sounds good, use it and forget it.
"Autologous bone marrow stromal cells" engineered to produce L-DOPA
(which isn't the same as dopamine -- is it? -- metabolic precursor).
Donate your own bone marrow (ouch!), and a month later
get implanted, no rejection, feel better.
Works in rats.
"High-expressing clones" refers to exceptional cells
derived from one cell that was isolated
and possibly cultured as a cell line,
which means records are kept
and, early passages frozen to liquid nitrogen
for long term storage...to be revived as needed.
Keep an eye on Tulane...lots of private money there.
Used to work there.
Once I saw a limo drop off someone for classes ;)
however, none of the graduate students doing research in our lab
had transportation like that.
Ray
.......................................................
Gene Ther 2001 Aug;8(16):1214-23
Rat marrow stromal cells rapidly transduced with a self-inactivating retrovirus
synthesize L-DOPA in vitro.
Schwarz EJ, Reger RL, Alexander GM, Class R, Azizi SA, Prockop DJ.
Center for Gene Therapy, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans,
LA, USA.
Autologous bone marrow stromal cells engineered to produce
3,4,-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) can potentially be used as donor cells for
neural transplantation in Parkinson's disease. Here, we examined the possibility
of using several different promoters and either a self-inactivating retrovirus
(pSIR) or standard retroviruses to introduce into marrow stromal cells (MSCs),
the two genes necessary for the cells to synthesize L-DOPA. pSIR vectors were
constructed using the mouse phosphoglycerate kinase-1 (PGK) promoter or the
cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter to drive expression of either a GFP reporter gene
or a bicistronic sequence containing the genes for human tyrosine hydroxylase
type I (TH) and rat GTP cyclohydrolase I (GC) separated by an internal ribosome
entry site (IRES). rMSCs were successfully transduced with both standard
retroviral vectors and pSIR containing the PGK promoter. Transduced rMSCs
expressed GFP (90.4-94.4% of cells) or were able to synthesize and secrete
L-DOPA (89.0-283 pmols/10(6) cells/h). After transduced rMSCs were plated
at low density (3-6 cells/cm(2)), the cells expanded over 1000-fold in 3-4
weeks, and the rMSCs continued to either express GFP or produce L-DOPA.
Furthermore, two high-expressing clones were isolated and expanded at
low-density from rMSCstransduced with pSIR driven by the PGK promoter
(97.0% GFP+ or 1096.0 pmols L-DOPA/10(6) cells/h).
PMID: 11509954 [PubMed - in process]
.......................................................
Ray Strand
Prairie Sky Design
-----------------( on the Edge of the Prairie Abyss )---------------
when the sky is clear
the ground is visible
49/dx PD 2 yrs/40? onset
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