Simple strategy for bone regeneration with a BMP-2/7 gene expression cassette vector.
Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) is one of the most promising candidates for bone regeneration therapy. Heterodimers of BMP family proteins, such as BMP-2/4 or BMP-2/7, are well known to have stronger osteoinduction activity than BMP homodimers. Here, we constructed a double gene cassette vector encoding BMP-2 and BMP-7, pCAGGS-BMP-2/7, and examined its potential for osteoinduction in vitro and in vivo. Expression of the pCAGGS-BMP-2/7 vector induced osteogenic differentiation in various cell lines with the same efficiency as BMP-2 and BMP-7 co-expressed from separate vectors. Moreover, the pCAGGS-BMP-2/7 vector strongly induced bone formation in rat skeletal muscle when introduced by in vivo electroporation, compared with BMP-2 or BMP-7 alone. Thus, our BMP-2/7 double gene cassette vector, or some variation of it, may be applicable for the future clinical induction of bone formation, because it does not require multiple vectors or complicated preparation.
Department of Oral Morphology, Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8525, Japan. marikoka@md.okayama-u.ac.jp
Mariko
M
Kawai
Hiroki
H
Maruyama
Kazuhisa
K
Bessho
Hiromitsu
H
Yamamoto
Jun-Ichi
J
Miyazaki
Toshio
T
Yamamoto
D000818:Animals; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 / Q000235:genetics*; D055419:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 7 / Q000235:genetics*; D001861:Bone Regeneration; D002460:Cell Line; D018274:Electroporation; D015870:Gene Expression; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006801:Humans; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D010012:Osteogenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D051381:Rats; D014162:Transfection
D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2; D055419:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 7