title: Puncture-mediated gene transfer to the skin.
abstract: Simple and efficient gene transfer to the skin would facilitate many local and systemic gene therapy applications. Here we report a novel approach that allows installation and expression of plasmid DNA without a particulate carrier into the skin for the purposes of gene therapy. A device with a constantly high-frequency oscillating bundle of fine metal needles allows puncturing of the skin and leads to DNA transfer to skin-associated cells and expression of reporter genes in mice. Furthermore, puncture-mediated instillation of an expression vector coding for a single T cell epitope induces specific cellular immune responses. If this approach could be optimized, puncture-mediated gene transfer might be useful for the treatment of large body areas with plasmid DNA for the purpose of somatic gene therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Centre Hôspitalier universitaire vaudois (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: I F
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Ciernik
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Krayenbühl
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Carbone
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000201:enzymology; D004274:DNA, Recombinant / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D008156:Luciferases / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012867:Skin; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000166:cytology; D019076:Transgenes; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004274:DNA, Recombinant; D008156:Luciferases; D001616:beta-Galactosidase