Abstract
The cationic polymer polyethylenimine (PEI) has been previously demonstrated to efficiently deliver genes to the lungs of mice in vivo via nebulization. Although within these studies various mouse strains were used in individual experiments, no direct comparison of gene delivery to different mouse strains via aerosol application has been published to date. With respect to the widespread use of mice as animal models of inherited and acquired diseases, such data could be of relevance to select the most appropriate mouse genetic background for preclinical mouse models. We investigated PEI-based aerosol gene delivery in two commonly used mouse strains, BALB/c and NMRI, and mixed 129/Sv × C57BL/6 mice. Gene expression in BALB/c mice was significantly 3.2- and 3.8-fold higher than in NMRI and 129/Sv × C57BL/6 mice, respectively. Lung deposition rates of radioactively labeled plasmid DNA (I123) complexed with PEI were not significantly different between each of the mouse strains. The kinetics of pDNA clearance from the lungs of BALB/c mice was slightly faster than from NMRI mice. Whereas gene expression increased until day 3 after treatment, the levels of pDNA decreased over the same period of time. Repeated aerosol application in a 3-day time interval could maintain gene expression at high levels compared with a single application. Furthermore, PEI–pDNA aerosol application led to reproducible gene expression in independent experiments. These data suggest that the genetic background of mice could be important for nonviral aerosol gene delivery which should be considered in transgenic animal mouse models of inherited and acquired diseases for aerosol gene delivery studies.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alton EW, on behalf of the United Kingdom Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Consortium (2004) Use of nonviral vectors for cystic fibrosis gene therapy. Proc Am Thorac Soc 1:296–301
Densmore CL, Orson FM, Xu B, Kinsey BM, Waldrep JC, Hua P, Bhogal B, Knight V (2000) Aerosol delivery of robust polyethyleneimine–DNA complexes for gene therapy and genetic immunization. Molec Ther 1:180–188
Gautam A, Densmore CL, Xu B, Waldrep JC (2000) Enhanced gene expression in mouse lung after PEI-DNA aerosol delivery. Molec Ther 2:63–70
Rudolph C, Ortiz A, Schillinger U, Jauernig J, Plank C, Rosenecker J (2005) Methodological optimization of polyethylenimine (PEI)-based gene delivery to the lungs of mice via aerosol application. J Gene Med 7:59–66
Koping-Hoggard M, Issa MM, Kohler T, Tronde A, Varum KM, Artursson P (2005) A miniaturized nebulization catheter for improved gene delivery to the mouse lung. J Gene Med 7:1215–1222
Davidson H, McLachlan G, Wilson A, Boyd AC, Doherty A, MacGregor G, Davies L, Painter HA, Coles R, Hyde SC, Gill DR, Amaral MD, Collie DD, Porteous DJ, Penque D (2006) Human-specific cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator antibodies detect in vivo gene transfer to ovine airways. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 35:72–83
Liu Y, Liggitt HD, Dow S, Handumrongkul C, Heath TD, Debs RJ (2002) Strain-based genetic differences regulate the efficiency of systemic gene delivery as well as expression. J Biol Chem 277:4966–4972
Gautam A, Densmore CL, Melton S, Golunski E, Waldrep JC (2002) Aerosol delivery of PEI–p53 complexes inhibits B16-F10 lung metastases through regulation of angiogenesis. Cancer Gene Ther 9:28–36
Densmore CL, Kleinerman ES, Gautam A, Jia SF, Xu B, Worth LL, Waldrep JC, Fung YK, T’Ang A, Knight V (2001) Growth suppression of established human osteosarcoma lung metastases in mice by aerosol gene therapy with PEI–p53 complexes. Cancer Gene Ther 8:619–627
Jia SF, Worth LL, Densmore CL, Xu B, Zhou Z, Kleinerman ES (2002) Eradication of osteosarcoma lung metastases following intranasal interleukin-12 gene therapy using a nonviral polyethylenimine vector. Cancer Gene Ther 9:260–266
Kim HW, Park IK, Cho CS, Lee KH, Beck GR Jr, Colburn NH, Cho MH (2004) Aerosol delivery of glucosylated polyethylenimine/phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 complex suppresses Akt downstream pathways in the lung of K-ras null mice. Cancer Res 64:7971–7976
Schulz H, Johner C, Eder G, Ziesenis A, Reitmeier P, Heyder J, Balling R (2002) Respiratory mechanics in mice: strain and sex specific differences. Acta Physiol Scand 174:367–375
Reinhard C, Eder G, Fuchs H, Ziesenis A, Heyder J, Schulz H (2002) Inbred strain variation in lung function. Mamm Genome 13:429–437
Oldham MJ, Phalen RF (2002) Dosimetry implications of upper tracheobronchial airway anatomy in two mouse varieties. Anat Rec 268:59–65
Offermanns S, Hashimoto K, Watanabe M, Sun W, Kurihara H, Thompson RF, Inoue Y, Kano M, Simon MI (1997) Impaired motor coordination and persistent multiple climbing fiber innervation of cerebellar Purkinje cells in mice lacking Galphaq. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 94:14089–14094
Terebesi J, Kwok KY, Rice KG (1998) Iodinated plasmid DNA as a tool for studying gene delivery. Anal Biochem 263:120–123
Rudolph C, Schillinger U, Ortiz A, Plank C, Golas MM, Sander B, Stark H, Rosenecker J (2005) Aerosolized nanogram quantities of plasmid DNA mediate highly efficient gene delivery to mouse airway epithelium. Molec Ther 12:493–501
Koshkina NV, Agoulnik IY, Melton SL, Densmore CL, Knight V (2003) Biodistribution and pharmacokinetics of aerosol and intravenously administered DNA–polyethyleneimine complexes: optimization of pulmonary delivery and retention. Molec Ther 8:249–254
Bermudez E, Mangum JB, Wong BA, Asgharian B, Hext PM, Warheit DB, Everitt JI (2004) Pulmonary responses of mice, rats, and hamsters to subchronic inhalation of ultrafine titanium dioxide particles. Toxicol Sci 77:347–357
Oberdorster G, Oberdorster E, Oberdorster J (2005) Nanotoxicology: an emerging discipline evolving from studies of ultrafine particles. Environ Health Perspect 113:823–839
Rudolph C, Schillinger U, Plank C, Gessner A, Nicklaus P, Muller R, Rosenecker J (2002) Nonviral gene delivery to the lung with copolymer-protected and transferrin-modified polyethylenimine. Biochim Biophys Acta 1573:75–83
Swanson JA, Baer SC (1998) Phagocytosis by zippers and triggers. Trends Cell Biol 5:89–93
Gautam A, Densmore CL, Golunski E, Xu B, Waldrep JC (2001) Transgene expression in mouse airway epithelium by aerosol gene therapy with PEI–DNA complexes. Molec Ther 3:551–556
Davies LA, Hyde SC, Gill DR (2005) Repeat administration of polyethylenimine (PEI) aerosols od plasmid DNA to the murine lung is associated with loss of gene transfer efficiency. Molec Ther 11:137
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the program Nanotechnology, grants 13N8539 and 13N8538, and BioFuture (0311898).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dames, P., Ortiz, A., Schillinger, U. et al. Aerosol gene delivery to the murine lung is mouse strain dependent. J Mol Med 85, 371–378 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-006-0130-9
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-006-0130-9