Cartilage Tissue Formation From Dedifferentiated Chondrocytes by Codelivery of BMP-2 and SOX-9 Genes Encoding Bicistronic Vector.

Articular cartilage, when damaged by degenerative disease or trauma, has limited ability for self-repair. Recently, many trials have demonstrated that gene therapy combined with tissue engineering techniques would be a promising approach for cartilage regeneration. Bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) is an important signal for upregulation of osteogenesis and chondrogenesis of stem cells. Sex-determining region Y box gene 9 (SOX-9) has also been reported as one of the key transcription factors for chondrogenesis. We hypothesized that codelivery of BMP-2 and SOX-9 genes would result in improved efficiency of recovery of normal chondrogenic properties in dedifferentiated chondrocytes. To this aim, we constructed a bicistronic vector encoding the BMP-2 and SOX-9 genes linked to the "self-cleaving" 2A peptide sequence. After gene delivery to dedifferentiated chondrocytes using a microporator transfection system, we confirmed over 65% delivery efficiency of the BMP-2 and SOX-9 genes. According to RT-PCR analysis and Alcian blue staining, simultaneous delivery of BMP-2/SOX-9 resulted in significantly increased expression of chondrogenesis-related markers (type II collagen and aggrecan) and GAG matrix formation compared with individual delivery of the BMP-2 or SOX-9 gene. Six weeks after in vivo transplantation, BMP-2/SOX-9 genes also showed a significant increase in cartilage formation compared with the BMP-2 or SOX-9 gene. These results demonstrate that codelivery of two chondrogenic lineage-determining genes can enhance normal chondrogenic properties of dedifferentiated chondrocytes followed by improved cartilage formation.

Citation

Byung-Hyun Cha, Jae-Hwan Kim, Sun-Woong Kang, Hyun-Jin Do, Ju-Woong Jang, Yon Rak Choi, Hansoo Park, Byung-Soo Kim, Soo-Hong Lee. Cartilage Tissue Formation From Dedifferentiated Chondrocytes by Codelivery of BMP-2 and SOX-9 Genes Encoding Bicistronic Vector. Cell transplantation. 2013;22(9):1519-28

PMID: 22776347

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