Persistent systemic production of human factor IX in mice by skeletal myoblast-mediated gene transfer: feasibility of repeat application to obtain therapeutic levels.

Myoblast-mediated gene transfer and its repeated applications were tested for achieving a long-term stable systemic production of human factor IX (hFIX) at a therapeutic level in SCID mice. Primary skeletal myoblasts were stably transfected with a hFIX expression plasmid vector, pdLMe4 betaA-hIXm1, which contains a hFIX minigene under the control of a beta-actin promoter with muscle creatine kinase enhancers. Myotubes derived from the myoblasts produced 1,750 ng hFIX/10(6) cells/24 hours in culture. hFIX secretion by the myoblasts and thereof derived myotubes were equally efficient, and myotubes were shown to have a sufficient secretory capacity to handle a substantially elevated production of hFIX. After intramuscular injection of 5, 10, and 20 x 10(6) myoblasts, SCID mice stably produced hFIX into the systemic circulation proportional to the number of implanted cells, and the expression levels were maintained for at least up to 10 months (end of the experiment). Additional cell injections administered to animals that originally received 10 x 10(6) cells approximately 2 months later elevated the systemic hFIX levels to an average of 182 +/- 21 ng/mL, a therapeutic level, which persisted for at least 8 months (end of the experiment). These results indicate that long-term, stable systemic production of hFIX at therapeutic levels can be achieved by repeated application of myoblast-mediated gene transfer.