Development of retrovirus vectors useful for expressing genes in cultured murine embryonal cells and hematopoietic cells in vivo.

A series of retrovirus vectors were constructed in which cellular promoter elements derived from the chicken beta-actin and human histone H4 genes were introduced within the proviral transcriptional unit of Moloney murine leukemia virus in order to promote expression of inserted sequences. Each of these vectors gave rise to high titer of virus capable of transferring the expected proviral structure to cells. Inclusion of normal 5' splice sequences or a portion of viral gag sequences in these constructions resulted in significant increases in virus titer. Each construction was transcriptionally active in NIH 3T3 cells and in undifferentiated F9 cells. One of the vectors, HSG-neo, which contained the human histone H4 promoter, was shown to be transcriptionally active in hematopoietic cells derived from long-term reconstituted bone marrow transplant recipients engrafted with transduced stem cells. These vectors should be of general use for obtaining efficient gene expression in embryonal and hematopoietic cells.