Co-transduction of lentiviral and adenoviral vectors for co-delivery of growth factor and shRNA genes in mesenchymal stem cells-based chondrogenic system

Abstract

Gene delivery takes advantage of cellular mechanisms to express gene products and is an efficient way to deliver them into cells, influencing cellular behaviours and expression patterns. Among the delivery methods, viral vectors are applied due to their high efficiency. Two typical viral vectors for gene delivery include lentiviral vector for integrative transduction and adenoviral vector for transient episomal transduction, respectively. The selection and formulation of proper viral vectors applied to cells can modulate gene expression profiles and further impact the downstream pathways. In this study, recombinant lentiviral and adenoviral vectors were co-transduced in a synovial mesenchymal stem cells (SMSCs)-based articular chondrogenic system by which two transgenes were co-delivered – the gene for transforming growth factor (TGF)β3, to facilitate SMSC chondrogenesis, and the gene for small hairpin RNA (shRNA), targeting the mRNA of type I collagen (Col I) α1 chain to silence Col I expression and minimize fibrocartilage formation. Delivery of either gene could be achieved with either lentiviral or adenoviral vectors. Therefore, co-delivery of the two transgenes via the two types of vectors was performed to determine which combination was optimal for three-dimensional (3D) articular chondrogenesis to construct articular hyaline cartilage tissue. Suppression of Col I and expression of cartilage markers, including type II collagen, aggrecan and cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), were assessed at both the transcriptome and protein phenotypic levels. It was concluded that the combination of lentiviral-mediated TGFβ3 release and adenoviral-mediated shRNA expression (LV-T + Ad-sh) generally demonstrated optimal efficacy in engineered articular cartilage with SMSCs.