Figure 2.

Discovery of episomal persistence in vivo in the rhesus lung. [Reproduced with permission from Afione et al.³⁷] Primary rhesus bronchial epithelial cells harvested from animals after in vivo AAV-CFTR delivery were cultured and evaluated by Southern blot with (+) and without (−) Ad5 and AAV2 supernatants. Lane G shows the genomic DNA after BamH1 digestion. The left Southern blot was analyzed by an internal specific CFTR cDNA probe and the right by an AAV2 internal specific probe. AAV-CFTR was determined to persist episomally, as Hirt supernatants without AAV2 resulted in episomal bands with sizes of AAV-CFTR and wild-type AAV2 replicating-form dimers.