Long-term high-level expression of human beta-globin occurs following transplantation of transgenic marrow into irradiated mice.
When the human beta-globin gene is transferred into the bone marrow cells of live mice, its expression is very low. To investigate the reason for this, we transferred the bone marrow of transgenic mice containing and expressing the human beta-globin into irradiated recipients. We demonstrate that long-term high level expression of the human beta-globin gene can be maintained in the marrow and blood of irradiated recipients following transplantation. Although expression decreased over time in most animals because of host marrow reconstitution, the ratio of human beta-globin transgene expression to endogenous mouse beta-globin gene expression in donor-derived erythroid cells remained constant over time. We conclude that there is no inherent limitation to efficient expression of an exogenous human beta-globin gene in mouse bone marrow cells following marrow transplantation.
Himelstein
A
A
Department of Genetics and Development, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York 10032.
Ward
M
M
Podda
S
S
de la Flor Weiss
E
E
Costantini
F
F
Bank
A
A
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001797:Blood Protein Electrophoresis; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D015870:Gene Expression; D005914:Globins / Q000235:genetics*; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D014162:Transfection; D014916:Whole-Body Irradiation
D006454:Hemoglobins; D005914:Globins