Although vectors based on adeno-associated virus (AAV) offer several unique advantages, their usage has been hampered by the difficulties encountered in vector production. In this report, we describe a new AAV packaging system based on inducible amplification of integrated helper and vector constructs containing the simian virus 40 (SV40) replication origin. The packaging and producer cell line...

An avian leukosis virus-based packaging cell line was constructed from the genome of the Rous-associated virus type 1. The gag, pol, and env genes were separated on two different plasmids; the packaging signal and the 3' long terminal repeat were removed. On a plasmid expressing the gag and pol genes, the env gene was replaced by the hygromycin resistance gene. The phleomycin resistance gene wa...

Lymphotoxin alpha-deficient (LTalpha-/-) mice show dramatically reduced IgG responses after either primary or secondary immunizations with sheep red blood cells (SRBC). When splenocytes from SRBC-primed wild-type donor mice were infused into irradiated naive wild-type recipient mice, they generated a robust memory IgG response, but not when infused into LTalpha-/- recipients, indicating that th...

Recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors have many advantages for gene therapeutic applications compared with other vector systems. Several methods that use plasmids or helper viruses have been reported for the generation of rAAV vectors. Unfortunately, the preparation of large-scale rAAV stocks is labor-intensive. Moreover, the biological titration of rAAV is still difficult, which ma...

Natural killer (NK) cells are key components of the innate immune system with their killing and cytokine producing abilities. Bovine NK cells have been characterized as NKp46(+)/CD3(-) lymphocytes, but little is known about these cells in neonatal calves. As the newborn calf, with an insufficiently developed acquired immunity, has to employ the innate immune system, we wanted to investigate whe...

Vectors derived from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are highly efficient vehicles for in vivo gene delivery. However, their biosafety is of major concern. Here we exploit the complexity of the HIV genome to provide lentivirus vectors with novel biosafety features. In addition to the structural genes, HIV contains two regulatory genes, tat and rev, that are essential for HIV replication, and...

Background: During male germ cells differentiation, genomewide re-organizations and highly specific programming of the male genome occur. These changes not only include the large-scale meiotic shuffling of genes, taking place in spermatocytes, but also a complete “re-packaging” of the male genome in post meiotic cells, leading to a highly compacted nucleo-protamine structure in the mature sperm...

introduction: acute myeloid leukemia is a malignant transformation of hematopoietic tissue, bone marrow infiltration of undifferentiated cells known as blasts that interfere with the production of normal cells. vascular endothelial growth factor (vegf) is persistently secreted from myeloid cells and high levels can be detected in patients' serum. methods: twenty-one aml patients, who were chemo...