The autograft and non-autograft cannot meet the needs of clinical vascular surgery. Since there are possibilities of thrombus formation in artificial vascular grafts, the methods for deposing the graft using physical and chemical ways or simply seeding with endothelial cells cannot produce satisfactory grafts for vascular operations until now. In order to increase the anticoagulative capacity of artificial vascular graft, it is rational to use genetic engineering methods modifying the endothelial cells to make it express anticoagulative factors stably. Although seeding artificial graft with the genetically engineered endothelial cells can possibly produce a satisfactory graft for vascular surgery, some problems still need to be solved.
Objective To observe the effect of RNA interference (RNAi) on HepG2 hepatic cancer cell by small interfering RNA (siRNA). Methods siRNA targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene was transfected into HepG2 cells by LipofectimineTM 2000. The VEGF mRNA and protein were respectively detected by real-time quantitive PCR and Western blot, and the concentration of VEGF protein in the cell culture supertant was determined by ELISA at 48 h after culture. Results The average efficiency of siRNA transfection was (90.4±2.9)% after 6 h cell culture. The expressions of VEGF mRNA and protein in HepG2 cells could be effectively suppressed by siRNA, and the concentration of VEGF protein in the cell culture supertant was also decreased. Conclusion siRNA can knock down the expression of VEGF gene and decrease the concentration of VEGF protein in HepG2 cells.
ObjectiveTo research the effect of recombinant adenovirus-bone morphogenetic protein 12 (Ad-BMP-12) transfection on the differentiation of peripheral blood mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into tendon/ligament cells. MethodsPeripheral blood MSCs were isolated from New Zealand rabbits (3-4 months old) and cultured in vitro until passage 3. The recombinant adenoviral vector system was prepared using AdEasy system, then transfected into MSCs at passage 3 (transfected group); untransfected MSCs served as control (untransfected group). The morphological characteristics and growth of transfected cells were observed under inverted phase contrast microscope. The transfection efficiency and green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression were detected by flow cytometry (FCM) and fluorescence microscopy. After cultured for 14 days in vitro, the expressions of tendon/ligament-specific markers were determined by immunohistochemistry and real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. ResultsGFP expression could be observed in peripheral blood MSCs at 8 hours after transfection. At 24 hours after transfection, the cells had clear morphology and grew slowly under inverted phase contrast microscope and almost all expressed GFP at the same field under fluorescence microscopy. FCM analysis showed that the transfection efficiency of the transfected group was 99.57%, while it was 2.46% in the untransfected group. The immunohistochemistry showed that the expression of collagen type Ι gradually increased with culture time in vitro. Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR results showed that the mRNA expressions of the tendon/ligament-specific genes (Tenomodulin, Tenascin-C, and Decorin) in the transfected group were significantly higher than those in untransfected group (0.061±0.013 vs. 0.004±0.002, t=-7.700, P=0.031; 0.029±0.008 vs. 0.003±0.001, t=-5.741, P=0.020; 0.679±0.067 vs. 0.142±0.024, t=-12.998, P=0.000). ConclusionAd-BMP-12 can significantly promote differentiation of peripheral blood MSCs into tendon/ligament fibroblasts and enhance the expressions of tendon/ligament-specific phenotypic differentiation, which would provide the evidence for peripheral blood MSCs applied for tendon/ligament regeneration.
The raging global epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) not only poses a major threat to public health, but also has a huge impact on the global health care system and social and economic development. Therefore, accelerating the development of vaccines and antibody drugs to provide people with effective protection and treatment measures has become the top priority of researchers and medical institutions in the field. At present, several vaccines and antibody drugs targeting SARS-Cov-2 have been in the stage of clinical research or approved for marketing around the world. In this manuscript, we summarized the vaccines and antibody drugs which apply genetic engineering technologies to target spike protein, including subunit vaccines, viral vector vaccines, DNA vaccines, mRNA vaccines, and several neutralizing antibody drugs, and discussed the trends of vaccines and antibody drugs in the future.