title: High lysosomal activities in cystic fibrosis tracheal gland cells corrected by adenovirus-mediated CFTR gene transfer.
abstract: Human tracheal gland serous (HTGS) cells are now believed to be a major target of cystic fibrosis (CF) gene therapy. To evaluate the efficiency of adenovirus-mediated gene transfer in these cells we tested the adenovirus construction containing beta-galactosidase cDNA. We observed that the endogenous beta-galactosidase activity in cultured CF-HTGS cells was too strong to allow us to detect any exogenous beta-galactosidase activity. Immunohistological study on sections of human tracheal tissue confirmed the presence of beta-galactosidase in the serous component of the submucosal glands. We then looked for other lysosomal activities in normal and CF-HTGS cells. We showed that normal cells already have elevated enzyme values and that CF-HTGS cells contained 2-4-fold more beta-galactosidase, alpha-fucosidase, alpha-mannosidase and beta-glucuronidase activities than normal cells. An analysis of their kinetic constants has shown that this difference could be attributed to a lower K(m) of CF lysosomal enzymes. More importantly, these differences are eliminated after adenovirus-mediated CFTR gene transfer and not after beta-galactosidase gene transfer.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physiologie, Institut des Sciences de la Nature, Université de Constantine, Algeria.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kammouni
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Naïmi
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Renaud
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bianco
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Figarella
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Merten
mesh_terms: D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000201:enzymology / Q000628:therapy; D019005:Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000201:enzymology*; D014132:Trachea / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics