Isolation and cultivation of murine hematopoietic stem cells and expression of hFIX mediated by recombinant lentiviral vectors in vitro

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are an attractive target for gene therapy, especially for inherited blood diseases. Moreover, recombinant lentiviral vectors are considered to be prospective in HSCs gene therapy for the high efficiency of infection. In this study, murine mononuclear cells (MNCs) were isolated from bone marrow and cultured in suspension, and then Lin ^-CD117⁺ HSCs were isolated by immunomagnetic beads. During culturing, cells and colonies increased in HSCs supplied with cytokines while no change was observed in the control group without cytokines. FUXW recombinant lentiviral vectors were produced by calcium phosphate-mediated transient cotransfection infected MNCs from ICR and C57 mice. The hFIX expressions were 41.7 ± 4.2 ng / mL and 34.5 ± 6.6 ng/mL in supernatant on 7d. The hFIX expressions of HSCs infected by FUXW recombinant lentiviral vectors were 46.6 ± 5.7 ng/mL (with cytokines) and 33.3 ± 4.8 ng/mL (without cytokines) in supernatant on 7d. Results indicate that recombinant lentiviral vectors can infect murine MNCs and Lin^-CD117⁺HSCs efficiently, and expression of the transgene can be improved when supplied with cytokines.