BACKGROUND The immune response to adenoviral vectors used in gene transfer limits the duration of transgene expression and thus poses a potential limitation to their effectiveness for gene therapy. The need for immunosuppression in transplantation may modify this immune response and facilitate prolonged transgene expression. This study hypothesizes that in the setting of heart transplantation, ...

The LAMB1 gene encodes the laminin beta1 subunit of laminin, an extracellular matrix protein. Using several transgenic mouse lines containing various lengths of the LAMB1 promoter driving lacZ reporter gene expression, regions of LAMB1 promoter that contain cis-acting DNA regulatory element(s) have been identified. The 3.9LAMB1betagal transgene is expressed in various tissues during development...

SUMMARY Determination of transgene location is essential for investigating the effects of position on transgene expression levels and facilitates cloning of the resident gene affected by insertion. Currently used PCR-based approaches for determination of transgene location are relatively complicated and often fail when the transgene is duplicated, rearranged or fragmented. HideNseek is a new bi...

We have investigated the role of DNA methylation in the initiation and maintenance of silenced chromatin in somatic mammalian cells. We found that a mutated transgene, in which all the CpG dinucleotides have been eliminated, underwent transcriptional silencing to the same extent as the unmodified transgene. These observations demonstrate that DNA methylation is not required for silencing. The s...

RNA-mediated virus resistance has recently been shown to be the result of post-transcriptional transgene silencing in transgenic plants. This study was undertaken to characterize the effect of transgene length and nontarget DNA sequences on RNA-mediated tospovirus resistance in transgenic plants. Transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana plants were generated to express different regions of the nucleoca...

We have determined the timing of the inactivation and reactivation of the X chromosome in the mouse primordial germ cells (PGCs) by monitoring the expression of an X-linked HMG-lacZ reporter gene. PGCs were identified by their distinct alkaline phosphatase activity and they were first localised in the primitive streak and allantoic bud of the 7.5-day gastrulating embryo. Although inactivation o...

Sequences proximal to transgene integration sites are able to deregulate transgene expression resulting in complex position effect phenotypes. In addition, transgenes integrated as repeated arrays are susceptible to repeat-induced gene silencing. Using a Cre recombinase-based system we have addressed the influence of transgene copy number (CN) on expression of hCD2 transgenes. CN reduction resu...

The ability to regulate transgene expression will be crucial for development of gene therapy to the brain. The most commonly used systems are based on a transactivator in combination with a drug, e.g. the tetracycline-regulated system. Here we describe a different method of transgene regulation by the use of the human glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) promoter. We constructed a lentiviral ...

BACKGROUND Low efficiency of gene transfer and silence of transgene expression are the critical factors hampering the development of transgenic livestock. Recently, transfer of recombinant lentivirus has been demonstrated to be an efficient transgene delivery method in various animals. However, the lentiviral transgenesis and the methylation status of transgene in sheep have not been well addre...