Prolongation of heart allograft survival after long-term expression of soluble MHC class I antigens and vIL-10 in the liver by AAV-plasmid-mediated gene transfer.

INTRODUCTION

The essential prerequisite for successful gene therapy in vivo is an effective and long-lasting transfer of the desired gene into the respective cell type or tissue. Over the last decades, many different methods have been developed for this purpose. The use of plasmid DNA seems to be a good alternative to the commonly used viral vectors because its large-scale production is simple, and side effects are low. Unfortunately, most reports describe only short-term expression in vivo, probably due to the lack of genomic integration in the target cell. This problem can possibly be addressed by the use of adeno-associated virus plasmids (AAV plasmids), where the coding sequences are cloned between the AAV-specific inverted terminal repeats. Here, we report our results after allogeneic heart transplantation, which followed AAV-plasmid-mediated gene transfer of the rat soluble major histocompatibility complex class I antigen RT1.A(a) and viral interleukin (vIL)-10 in the "high"-responder Dark Agouti to Lewis rat strain combination.

RESULTS

A high and stable long-term expression was achieved by in vivo transfection of the liver using AAV plasmids. Serum levels over 1,000 ng/ml of soluble RT1.A(a) and over 300 pg of vIL-10, respectively, were achieved. Expression levels remained high for up to several months. A mean prolongation of heart allograft survival of 1 to 2 days was demonstrated after transfection of either RT1.A(a) or vIL-10.