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. 2000 Aug 16;83(5):662–667. doi: 10.1054/bjoc.2000.1318

Gene delivery to hypoxic cells in vitro

G U Dachs 1, C Coralli 1, S L Hart 2, G M Tozer 1
PMCID: PMC2363510  PMID: 10944609

Abstract

Hypoxia in solid tumours has been correlated with poor prognosis and resistance to radiation and chemotherapy. Hypoxia is also a strong stimulus for gene expression. We previously proposed a gene therapy approach which exploits the presence of severe hypoxia in tumours for the induction of therapeutic genes. Hypoxic cells are known to have a reduced metabolic rate, transcription and translation. These facts may prevent gene transfer and therefore warranted further investigation. In this paper the feasibility of gene delivery in vitro under tumour conditions was demonstrated. DNA was delivered in vitro using a peptide-mediated non-viral system. Across a range of oxygen tensions and mammalian cell lines (including human tumour and endothelial cells) it was shown that hypoxic cells could be transfected. Transfection efficiencies varied depending on the level of hypoxia, cell characteristics and gene promoters used. An in vitro model of hypoxia/reoxygenation, designed to mimic the variable nature of tumour hypoxia, showed that hypoxic preconditioning and reoxygenation alone did not reduce transfection efficiency significantly; only chronic anoxia reduced transfection. The fact that neither intermediate hypoxia nor intermittent anoxia significantly reduced transfection is promising for future hypoxia-targeted gene therapy strategies. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign

Keywords: green fluorescent protein, tumour conditions, anoxia

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Footnotes

List of abbreviations: HIF-1, hypoxia inducible factor 1; CMV, cytomegalovirus; SV40, simian virus 40; AnO 2, anoxia; GFP, green fluorescent protein; FACS, fluorescent activated cell sorting

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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