Gene transfer into hippocampal slice cultures with an adenovirus vector driven by cytomegalovirus promoter: stable co-expression of green fluorescent protein and lacZ genes

Abstract

Virus-mediated gene transfer into identified neurons of organotypic hippocampal slice cultures offers a great potential for studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity. We describe here a new adenovirus vector Ad-GFP-lacZ carrying an early cytomegalovirus (CMV) gene promoter that efficiently co-transferred the β-galactosidase (lacZ) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) genes in rat organotypic hippocampal slice cultures. Monitoring of GFP fluorescence and immuno-histochemical staining for β-galactosidase showed that the expression of the transferred genes was widespread in the glial cells and neurons of CA1, CA3/4, and dentate gyrus regions. Immunoblot analyses showed that the expression of β-galactosidase and GFP was maximal about 48 h after infection of hippocampal slices with the adenovirus vector and the expression levels were maintained for several weeks. Also, immunoblot analyses showed no significant differences in the MAP-2 and glial fibrillary acidic protein levels in the adenovirus vector infected and uninfected hippocampal slices. In addition, we found that the infection of hippocampal slices with the adenovirus vector caused no significant increase in the induction of heat shock protein (HSP)-70 and showed no change in their electrophysiological properties as measured by stable field synaptic potentials in CA1 region and its reactivity to high frequency stimulation. Our data suggest that this adenovirus vector can be exploited to transfer multiple genes into neurons and may have implications for developing strategies for gene therapy.