1. ¹Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
2. ²Bioresource Collection and Research Center, Food Industry Research and Development Institute, Hsinchu, Taiwan

Correspondence: Professor Y-C Hu, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, 101, Sec. 2, Kuang Fu Rd, Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan. E-mail: yuchen@che.nthu.edu.tw

Received 2 January 2006; Revised 10 April 2006; Accepted 11 April 2006; Published online 8 June 2006.

Abstract

We have previously demonstrated that baculovirus can efficiently transduce human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In this study, we further demonstrated, for the first time, that baculovirus can transduce adipogenic, chondrogenic and osteogenic progenitors originating from MSCs. The transduction efficiency (21–90%), transgene expression level and duration (7–41 days) varied widely with the differentiation lineages and stages of the progenitors, as determined by flow cytometry. The variation stemmed from differential transgene transcription (as revealed by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction), rather than from variability in virus entry or cell cycle (as determined by quantitative real-time PCR and flow cytometry). Nonetheless, the baculovirus-transduced cells remained capable of differentiating into adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic pathways. The susceptibility to baculovirus transduction was higher for adipogenic and osteogenic progenitors, but was lower for chondrogenic progenitors. In particular, the duration of transgene expression was prolonged in the transduced adipogenic and osteogenic progenitors (as opposed to the MSCs), implicating the possibility of extending transgene expression via a proper transduction strategy design. Taken together, baculovirus may be an attractive alternative to genetically modify adipogenic and osteogenic progenitors in the ex vivo setting for cell therapy or tissue engineering.