Adenoviral-mediated transfer of tissue plasminogen activator gene into brain capillary endothelial cells in vitro.
Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) has a critical role in fibrinolysis, converting plasminogen into active protease plasmin. Because intravenous tPA has only limited effectiveness as acute stroke therapy, enhancement of endogenous tPA represents a potential alternative to stroke treatment. Adenoviral-mediated gene transfer was used to enhance production of tPA in bovine brain capillary endothelial cells (BEC). Antigen and activity levels of tPA and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) in media from BEC infected with AdCMVtPA were analyzed. Conditioned media were analyzed for thrombomodulin, the integral membrane antithrombotic molecule that co-activates protein C. BEC infected with AdCMVtPA demonstrated enhanced expression of tPA antigen (40.2 +/- 0.4 ng/mL vs 1.1 +/- 1.5 ng/mL [p<0.001] and 0.3 +/- 0.5 ng/mL [p<0.0001], respectively) and increased tPA enzymatic activity (27.4 +/- 5.7 IU/mL vs 8.3 +/- 1.7 IU/mL [p<0.05] and 13.3 +/- 3.2 IU/mL [p<0.05], respectively) compared to BEC infected with the control adenovirus (Adl327) or uninfected BEC. There was a moderate increase in PAI-1 protein 4 days after transfection with AdCMVtPA, and the integral membrane protein thrombomodulin was released into media by transfected BEC. These results demonstrate that adenoviral-mediated delivery in vitro of the human tPA gene resulted in high levels of expression of tPA in BEC. Transient overexpression of tPA by gene transfer might be a useful strategy to protect against thrombotic occlusion during the period of risk of acute stroke.
Kim
J A
JA
Department of Neurology, University of California at Irvine, School of Medicine, Orange, USA.
Hedrick
C C
CC
Xie
D
D
Fisher
M J
MJ
D000256:Adenoviridae / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D000941:Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply*; D002196:Capillaries / Q000166:cytology; D002417:Cattle; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000166:cytology*; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D018180:Thrombomodulin / Q000032:analysis; D010959:Tissue Plasminogen Activator / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism
D000941:Antigens; D018180:Thrombomodulin; D010959:Tissue Plasminogen Activator