Study tracks genes in murine embryos after gene delivery in mothers.(gene therapy)

2002 DEC 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Medical researchers hope to some day be able to treat fetuses in utero with gene therapy. Murine model experiments may provide the answers for how to best accomplish that, according to a Japanese study.

Scientists believe a host of genetically related illnesses could be treated if they were just recognized soon enough. Embryos and fetuses growing within a mother's womb represent potential targets for preventative or therapeutic gene therapy for some diseases. One of the challenges of delivering genes to embryos or fetuses is being able to send therapy across the placental barrier. N. Kikuchi and colleagues, Tokai University, Isehara, Japan, have investigated methods for doing so in mice.

"Our aim is to develop a simple gene transfer method into egg cylinder and mid-gestational murine embryos," Kikuchi's team explained in Gene Therapy.

The group injected plasmid/lipid-based DNA constructs into the tail veins of mice pregnant with progeny carrying altered genes and detected the effects of genetic activity in 10-50% of fetuses, based on laboratory staining techniques.

"Although younger embryos remained unstained, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis revealed low levels of the Cre vector DNA and recombined transgene," Kikuchi and coauthors noted.

In further analyses, researchers administered trypan or fluorescense-labeled gene therapy to female mice ...