Transduction of pluripotent human hematopoietic stem cells demonstrated by clonal analysis after engraftment in immune-deficient mice.

Gene transduction of pluripotent human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is necessary for successful gene therapy of genetic disorders involving hematolymphoid cells. Evidence for transduction of pluripotent HSCs can be deduced from the demonstration of a retroviral vector integrated into the same cellular chromosomal DNA site in myeloid and lymphoid cells descended from a common HSC precursor. CD34+ progenitors from human bone marrow and mobilized peripheral blood were transduced by retroviral vectors and used for long-term engraftment in immune-deficient (beige/nude/XIS) mice. Human lymphoid and myeloid populations were recovered from the marrow of the mice after 7-11 months, and individual human granulocyte-macrophage and T-cell clones were isolated and expanded ex vivo. Inverse PCR from the retroviral long terminal repeat into the flanking genomic DNA was performed on each sorted cell population. The recovered cellular DNA segments that flanked proviral integrants were sequenced to confirm identity. Three mice were found (of 24 informative mice) to contain human lymphoid and myeloid populations with identical proviral integration sites, confirming that pluripotent human HSCs had been transduced.     

Prion protein is expressed on long-term repopulating hematopoietic stem cells and is important for their self-renewal

Although the wild-type prion protein (PrP) is abundant and widely expressed in various types of tissues and cells, its physiological function(s) remain unknown, and PrP knockout mice do not exhibit overt and undisputed phenotypes. Here we showed that PrP is expressed on the surface of several bone marrow cell populations successively enriched in long-term (LT) hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) using flow cytometry analysis. Affinity purification of the PrP-positive and -negative fractions from these populations, followed by competitive bone marrow reconstitution assays, shows that all LT HSCs express PrP. HSCs from PrP-null bone marrow exhibited impaired self-renewal in serial transplantation of lethally irradiated mouse recipients both in the presence and absence of competitors. When treated with a cell cycle-specific myelotoxic agent, the animals reconstituted with PrP-null HSCs exhibit increased sensitivity to hematopoietic cell depletion. Ectopic expression of PrP in PrP-null bone marrow cells by retroviral infection rescued the defective hematopoietic engraftment during serial transplantation. Therefore, PrP is a marker for HSCs and supports their self-renewal.     

Efficient transfer and sustained high expression of the human glucocerebrosidase gene in mice and their functional macrophages following transplantation of bone marrow transduced by a retroviral vector.

A recombinant retroviral vector (MFG-GC) was used to study the efficiency of transduction of the human gene encoding glucocerebrosidase (GC; D-glucosyl-N-acylsphingosine glucohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.45), in mouse hematopoietic stem cells and expression in their progeny. Transfer of the GC gene to CFU-S (spleen cell colony-forming units) in primary and secondary recipients was virtually 100%. In mice 4-7 months after transplantation, highly efficient transfer of the human gene to bone marrow cells capable of long-term reconstitution was confirmed by detection of one or two copies per mouse genome in hematopoietic tissues and in cultures of pure macrophages. Expression of the human gene exceeded endogenous activity by several fold in primary and secondary CFU-S, tissues from long-term reconstituted mice, and explanted macrophages cultures. These studies are evidence of the feasibility of efficient transfer of the GC gene to hematopoietic stem cells and expression in their progeny for many months after reconstitution. The results of this study strengthen the rationale for gene therapy as a treatment for Gaucher disease.     

Flk-2 is a marker in hematopoietic stem cell differentiation: a simple method to isolate long-term stem cells.

Clonogenic multipotent mouse hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and progenitor cells are contained within the c-kit(+) (K) lineage(-/lo) (L) Sca-1(+) (S) population of hematopoietic cells; long-term (LT) and short-term (ST) HSCs are Thy-1.1(lo). c-kit is a member of the receptor tyrosine kinase family, a class of receptors that are important in the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic cells. To establish whether the Flk-2/Flt3 receptor tyrosine kinase was expressed on the most primitive LT-HSCs, we sorted highly purified multipotent stem and progenitor cells on the basis of Flk-2 surface expression and used them in competitive reconstitution assays. Low numbers of Flk-2(-) HSCs gave rise to long-term multilineage reconstitution in the majority of recipients, whereas the transfer of Flk-2(+) multipotent cells resulted in mostly short-term multilineage reconstitution. The KLS subset of adult mouse bone marrow was analyzed for Flk-2 and Thy-1.1 expression. Three phenotypically and functionally distinct populations were isolated: Thy(lo) Flk-2(-) (LT-HSCs), Thy(lo) Flk-2(+) (ST-HSCs), and Thy(-) Flk-2(+) multipotent progenitors. The loss of Thy-1.1 and gain of Flk-2 expression marks the loss of self-renewal in HSC maturation. The addition of Flk-2 antibody to the lineage mix allows direct isolation of LT-HSC from adult bone marrow as c-kit(+) lin(-) Sca-1(+) Flk-2(-) from many strains of mice. Fetal liver HSCs are contained within Flk-2(-) and Flk-2(+) KTLS cells.     

Endothelial progenitor cells improve the quality of transplanted hematopoietic stem cells and maintain longer term effects in mice

Engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is a pre-requisite for the success of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Fetal blood cell (FBC)-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are known to facilitate HSC reconstitution in the early phase. However, longer term effects on HSCs remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of EPCs on the quality of transplanted hematopoietic stem cells in mouse HSCT model. BALB/c mice were randomly divided into four groups, namely, control, total body irradiation only, HSCT, and HSCT + EPCs (with infusion of 5?×?10⁵ EPCs). Mice was sacrificed on days 7, 14, 21, and 28 post-HSCT for the analysis of the bone marrow pathology by H&E staining, measurement of c-kit⁺sca-1⁺, c-kit⁺, apoptosis, and necrosis by flow cytometry as well as colony formation assay. Secondary transplantation involved the injection of transplanted BALB/c-derived HSCs into new TBI-treated BALB/c mice. Compared with HSCT, EPCs infusion promoted the differentiation and reduced apoptosis of transplanted HSCs, possibly through promotion of vascular repair of the bone marrow microenvironment via differentiation into the bone marrow endothelial cells. Significantly, EPCs’ effect on HSCs was maintained for a long period as demonstrated using a secondary transplantation approach. These data revealed EPCs improved the quality and quantity of transplanted HSCs and maintained their effects over the longer term, suggesting a novel approach to improve HSCT efficiency and outcomes.     

Stem cell factor, interleukin-3, and interleukin-6 promote retroviral-mediated gene transfer into murine hematopoietic stem cells.

The efficiency of retroviral-mediated gene transfer into hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) is dependent on the survival and self-renewal of HSC in vitro during retroviral infection. We have examined the effect of prestimulation of bone marrow with various cytokines, including the product of the Steel gene, Steel factor or stem cell factor (SCF) (the ligand for the c-kit receptor) on the efficiency of retroviral transduction of the human adenosine deaminase (hADA) cDNA into murine HSC. Bone marrow cells were prestimulated for 48 hours with hematopoietic growth factors, then cocultivated with the packaging cell line producing the ZipPGK-ADA simplified retrovirus for an additional 48 hours with continued growth factor exposure. Nonadherant cells from these cocultures were injected into lethally irradiated recipients. The content of day 12 colony-forming unit-spleen (CFU-S12) in SCF/interleukin 6 (IL-6)-prestimulated and cocultured bone marrow was more than threefold greater than that of IL-3/IL-6-prestimulated bone marrow cells. All mice receiving bone marrow cells infected with the PGK-ADA virus after prestimulation with IL-3/IL-6 or SCF/IL-6 demonstrated hADA expression in the peripheral blood after full hematopoietic reconstitution. While all recipients of IL-3/IL-6-prestimulated bone marrow expressed hADA at 4 months posttransplant, in three independent experiments examining a total of 33 mice, in most recipients of SCF/IL-6-prestimulated and infected bone marrow cells, the expression of human enzyme was higher than IL-3/IL-6 mice. Southern blot analysis of DNA from hematopoietic tissues from these same mice prepared at least 4 months posttransplantation also demonstrated a higher infection efficiency of HSC as measured by proviral integration patterns and genome copy number analysis. These results suggest that the higher level of hADA expression seen in mice receiving marrow prestimulated with SCF/IL-6 before retroviral infection is due to more efficient infection of reconstituting HSC. Other growth factor combinations were also studied; however, prestimulation with SCF/IL-6 or IL-3/IL-6 appeared optimal. Using retroviral-mediated gene transfer and viral integration patterns, Steel factor (SCF) in combination with IL-6 appears to increase the survival and self-renewal of reconstituting hematopoietic stem cells and proves useful in effecting expression of foreign genes in transplant recipients. Such pretreatment may also be useful in the application of retroviral transfer methods to human cells.     

Effects of aging on the homing and engraftment of murine hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells

To test the hypothesis that aging has negative effects on stem-cell homing and engraftment, young or old C57BL/6 bone marrow (BM) cells were injected, using a limiting-dilution, competitive transplantation method, into old or young Ly5 congenic mice. Numbers of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and progenitor cells (HPCs) recovered from BM or spleen were measured and compared with the numbers initially transplanted. Although the frequency of marrow competitive repopulation units (CRUs) increased approximately 2-fold from 2 months to 2 years of age, the BM homing efficiency of old CRUs was approximately 3-fold lower than that of young CRUs. Surprisingly, the overall size of individual stem-cell clones generated in recipients receiving a single CRU was not affected by donor age. However, the increased ages of HSC donors and HSC transplant recipients caused marked skewing of the pattern of engraftment toward the myeloid lineage, indicating that HSC-intrinsic and HSC-extrinsic (microenvironmental) age-related changes favor myelopoiesis. This correlated with changes after transplantation in the rate of recovery of circulating leukocytes, erythrocytes, and platelets. Recovery of the latter was especially blunted in aged recipients. Collectively, these findings may have implications for clinical HSC transplantation in which older persons increasingly serve as donors for elderly patients.     

High-level expression of porcine factor VIII from genetically modified bone marrow-derived stem cells

Clinical success for gene therapy of hemophilia A will be judged by achievement of sustained, therapeutic levels of coagulation factor VIII (fVIII). Previous clinical trials have suffered from transient, subtherapeutic expression of human fVIII transgenes. Porcine fVIII contains sequence elements that enable more efficient biosynthesis than human fVIII due to enhanced posttranslational transit through the secretory pathway. In this study, we evaluated ex vivo retroviral gene transfer of a high-expression porcine fVIII transgene into bone marrow-derived stromal and hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (MSCs and HSCs, respectively) and transplantation into genetically immunocompetent hemophilia A mice. Both MSCs and HSCs demonstrated high-level expression of porcine fVIII in vivo. However, following transplantation of gene-modified MSCs, fVIII activity levels rapidly returned to baseline due to the formation of anti-porcine fVIII-neutralizing antibodies. Alternatively, transplantation of HSCs into myeloablated and nonmyeloablated hemophilia A mice resulted in high-level fVIII expression despite low-level hematopoietic reconstitution by gene-modified cells. FVIII expression was sustained beyond 10 months, indicating that immunologic tolerance to porcine fVIII was achieved. Furthermore, transplantation of bone marrow from primary recipients into naive secondary recipients resulted in sustained, high-level fVIII expression demonstrating successful genetic modification and engraftment of HSCs.     

Efficient retrovirus-mediated gene transduction into murine hematopoietic stem cells and long-lasting expression using a Transwell coculture system

The neomycin phosphotransferase (neo) gene was transduced into murine hematopoietic stem cells by culturing a recombinant retrovirus- producing cell line in a Transwell (Costar, Cambridge, MA) (bottomed with a porous membrane) hung into a Dexter-type long-term bone marrow (BM) culture. Gene transduction into stem cells retaining long-term reconstitution ability was successfully performed by using protocols of total 15 to 18 days of culture including establishment of the Dexter culture, transduction, and G418 selection. In the irradiated recipients of these cells, a large majority of the BM, thymus, and spleen cells as well as peripheral blood (PB) leukocytes were of donor origin and the neo gene was present in these organs up to 21 weeks after cell transfer. One third to two thirds of the in vitro colony-forming cells in the BM of the recipient mice were resistant to cultivation with G418. It was further found that the hematopoietic system of secondary recipients given BM cells from a primary recipient mouse was predominated by original donor-type cells. The transduced neo gene was detected in the PB, BM, thymus, and spleen cells of these secondary recipients. These results indicate that our procedure of retroviral vector-mediated gene transfer is highly effective in safely introducing a gene into pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells.     

Expression change of Flk-2/Flt-3 on murine hematopoietic stem cells in an activating state

OBJECTIVE: The receptor tyrosine kinase Flk-2/Flt-3 (Flt-3) represents an important molecule involved in early hematopoiesis. Murine hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have been shown to be negative for the expression of Flt-3. We now present clear evidence for the expression change of Flt-3(-) HSCs in an activating state, and the reversibility of Flt-3 expression by HSCs in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Bone marrow cells isolated from Ly5.1 mice were sorted on the basis of Flt-3 expression and transplanted into lethally irradiated Ly5.2 recipients. After 24 weeks, peripheral blood was analyzed for donor contribution by flow cytometry. RESULTS: Although long-term engraftment was predominantly detected in Flt-3(-) populations as previously described, a 6-day cultivation of Lin(-/low)c-kit(+)Sca-1(+) Flt-3(-) bone marrow cells with stem cell factor and interleukin-11 resulted in the generation of Flt-3(+) HSCs with long-term engraftment capabilities. However, the Flt-3 ligand had no significant effect on self-renewal of the Flt-3(+) HSCs. Next, to examine reversible expression of this receptor molecule, Flt-3(+) cells converted in vitro from Ly5.1 Lin(-/low)c-kit(+)Sca-1(+) Flt-3(-) bone marrow cells were isolated and transplanted into Ly5.2 primary recipients. After 24 weeks, Ly5.1 Lin(-/low) bone marrow cells were again separated into Flt-3(-) and Flt-3(+) cells and retransplanted into Ly5.2 secondary recipients. The majority of donor HSCs with long-term engraftment capabilities were detected in the Flt-3(-) populations, indicating the reversion of Flt-3(+) to Flt-3(-) HSCs. CONCLUSIONS: These observations suggest that Flt-3 is a useful cell-surface marker of HSC activation and that this phenotypic change is reversible.     

Serial transplantation of methotrexate-resistant bone marrow: protection of murine recipients from drug toxicity by progeny of transduced stem cells

Recombinant retroviral vectors have been used to transfer a variety of genetic sequences into hematopoietic stem cells. Although transfer and expression of foreign genetic sequences into reconstituting stem cells is one approach to somatic gene therapy, few studies have shown long lasting phenotypic changes in recipient mice in vivo. In this study, we show successful transfer of a methotrexate-resistant cDNA (DHFRr) into reconstituting hematopoietic stem cells using a retroviral vector, FrDHFRr, in which the DHFR cDNA is expressed off a hybrid Friend/Moloney long term repeat. Both primary and secondary recipients transplanted with bone marrow cells infected with this recombinant retrovirus show improved survival and protection from methotrexate-induced marrow toxicity when compared with control animals. These data suggest that retroviral-mediated gene transfer of DHFRr cDNA leads to a stable change in the phenotype of hematopoietic stem cells and progeny derived from those cells in vivo after bone marrow transplantation. Gene transfer using recombinant retroviral vectors seems to be one rational approach to establishing chemotherapy-resistant bone marrow cells.     

SLAM family markers are conserved among hematopoietic stem cells from old and reconstituted mice and markedly increase their purity

Recent advances have increased the purity of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) isolated from young mouse bone marrow. However, little attention has been paid to the purity of HSCs from other contexts. Although Thy-1 low Sca-1+ Lineage- c-kit+ cells from young bone marrow are highly enriched for HSCs (1 in 5 cells gives long-term multilineage reconstitution after transplantation into irradiated mice), the same population from old, reconstituted, or cytokine-mobilized mice engrafts much less efficiently (1 in 78 to 1 in 185 cells gives long-term multilineage reconstitution). To test whether we could increase the purity of HSCs isolated from these contexts, we examined the SLAM family markers CD150 and CD48. All detectable HSCs from old, reconstituted, and cyclophosphamide/G-CSF-mobilized mice were CD150+ CD48-, just as in normal young bone marrow. Thy-1 low Sca-1+ Lineage- c-kit+ cells from old, reconstituted, or mobilized mice included mainly CD48+ and/or CD150- cells that lacked reconstituting ability. CD150+ CD48- Sca-1+ Lineage- c-kit+ cells from old, reconstituted, or mobilized mice were much more highly enriched for HSCs, with 1 in 3 to 1 in 7 cells giving long-term multilineage reconstitution. SLAM family receptor expression is conserved among HSCs from diverse contexts, and HSCs from old, reconstituted, and mobilized mice engraft relatively efficiently after transplantation when contaminating cells are eliminated.     

Increasing DNA repair methyltransferase levels via bone marrow stem cell transduction rescues mice from the toxic effects of 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea, a chemotherapeutic alkylating agent.

The chloroethylnitrosourea (CNU) alkylating agents are commonly used for cancer chemotherapy, but their usefulness is limited by severe bone marrow toxicity that causes the cumulative depletion of all hematopoietic lineages (pancytopenia). Bone marrow CNU sensitivity is probably due to the inefficient repair of CNU-induced DNA damage; relative to other tissues, bone marrow cells express extremely low levels of the O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) protein that repairs cytotoxic O6-chloroethylguanine DNA lesions. Using a simplified recombinant retroviral vector expressing the human MGMT gene under control of the phosphoglycerate kinase promoter (PGK-MGMT) we increased the capacity of murine bone marrow-derived cells to repair CNU-induced DNA damage. Stable reconstitution of mouse bone marrow with genetically modified, MGMT-expressing hematopoietic stem cells conferred considerable resistance to the cytotoxic effects of 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU), a CNU commonly used for chemotherapy. Bone marrow harvested from mice transplanted with PGK-MGMT-transduced cells showed extensive in vitro BCNU resistance. Moreover, MGMT expression in mouse bone marrow conferred in vivo resistance to BCNU-induced pancytopenia and significantly reduced BCNU-induced mortality due to bone marrow hypoplasia. These data demonstrate that increased DNA alkylation repair in primitive hematopoietic stem cells confers multilineage protection from the myelosuppressive effects of BCNU and suggest a possible approach to protecting cancer patients from CNU chemotherapy-related toxicity.     

Bone marrow reconstitution as a relevant model of genetically programmed leukemia

Mouse model systems which allow bone marrow reconstitution can be used to analyse genetically programmed leukemia. The original and most widely used system is that of post 5-fluorouracil mouse hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) into lethally irradiated syngeneic mice. Another more recent system allows analysis of human HSCs in the NOD-SCID mouse. Both systems are discussed as models for analysis of gene induced leukemia.     

Efficient retroviral gene transfer to purified long-term repopulating hematopoietic stem cells

Efficient gene delivery to multipotential hematopoietic stem cells would greatly facilitate the development of effective gene therapy for certain hematopoietic disorders. We have recently described a rapid multiparameter sorting procedure for significantly enriching stem cells with competitive long-term lymphomyeloid repopulating ability (CRU) from 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-treated mouse bone marrow. The sorted cells have now been tested as targets for retrovirus-mediated delivery of a marker gene, NeoR. They were cocultured for 4 days with fibroblasts producing a high titer of retrovirus in medium containing combinations of the hematopoietic growth factors interleukin-3 (IL-3), IL-6, c-kit ligand (KL), and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and then injected into lethally irradiated recipients, together with sufficient "compromised" bone marrow cells to provide short-term support. Over 80% of the transplanted mice displayed high levels (> or = 20%) of donor- derived leukocytes when analyzed 4 to 6 months later. Proviral DNA was detected in 87% of these animals and, in half of them, the majority of the hematopoietic cells were marked. Thus, infection of the stem cells was most effective. The tissue and cellular distribution of greater than 100 unique clones in 55 mice showed that most sorted stem cells had lymphoid as well as myeloid repopulating potential. Secondary transplantation provided strong evidence for infection of very primitive stem cells because, in several instances, different secondary recipients displayed in their marrow, spleen, thymus and day 14 spleen colony-forming cells the same proviral integration pattern as the primary recipient. Neither primary engraftment nor marking efficiency varied for stem cells cultured in IL-3 + IL-6, IL-3 + IL-6 + KL, IL-3 + IL-6 + LIF, or all four factors, but those cultured in IL-3 + IL-6 + LIF appeared to have lower secondary engraftment potential. Provirus expression was detected in 72% of the strongly marked mice, albeit often at low levels. Highly efficient retroviral marking of purified lymphomyeloid repopulating stem cells should enhance studies of stem cell biology and facilitate analysis of genes controlling hematopoietic differentiation and transformation.     

Low level of gene transfer to and engraftment of murine bone marrow cells from long-term bone marrow cultures

OBJECTIVE: We wanted to determine whether the long-term bone marrow culture (LTBMC) transduction system would lead to efficient gene transfer and engraftment of murine repopulating hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), particularly in nonablated recipients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Congenic mouse strains expressing Ly 5.1 or Ly 5.2 and the GP+E86 cell line producing the MGirL22Y vector carrying the gene for enhanced GFP were used. Murine LTBMCs were established and demi-depopulated on days 7 and 14 with addition of vector supernatant on days 8 and 15. RESULTS: Cell recovery on day 21 was 21.3%+/-3.8% of input cells and CFU-C recovery was 9.7+/-3.4% as compared with CFU-C of input cells. In vitro transduction efficiency determined by CFU-C expressing GFP was 22.2%+/-1.6%. In irradiated (950 cGy) mice transplanted with 2x10(6) LTBMC cells, 94% of nucleated cells in the blood at week 16 were of donor origin. However, GFP was only detected at low level in a few animals at week 4 and not later. Analysis of bone marrow from these mice at week 20 did not show any GFP expression and semiquantitative PCR revealed a transgene level of <1%. When 3.5-20.8x10(6) LTBMC cells (corresponding to 20-100x10(6) fresh cells) were transplanted to nonablated recipients, no engraftment or GFP expression were detected. Competitive repopulation experiments showed that the long-term repopulation ability (LTRA) of the LTMC cells was only 7% of fresh cells. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that LTBMC transduction of murine cells leads to low-level transduction of progenitors, no gene transfer to repopulating stem cells, and reduction in LTRA in ablated and nonablated recipients.     

Salidroside stimulates DNA repair enzyme Parp-1 activity in mouse HSC maintenance

Salidroside is a phenylpropanoid glycoside isolated from the medicinal plant Rhodiola rosea, which has potent antioxidant properties. Here we show that salidroside prevented the loss of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in mice under oxidative stress. Quiescent HSCs were recruited into cell cycling on in vivo challenge with oxidative stress, which was blocked by salidroside. Surprisingly, salidroside does not prevent the production of reactive oxygen species but reduces hydrogen peroxide-induced DNA-strand breaks in bone marrow cells enriched for HSCs. We tested whether salidroside enhances oxidative DNA damage repair in mice deficient for 5 DNA repair pathways known to be involved in oxidative DNA damage repair; we found that salidroside activated poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase-1 (PARP-1), a component of the base excision repair pathway, in mouse bone marrow HSCs as well as primary fibroblasts and human lymphoblasts. PARP-1 activation by salidroside protects quiescent HSCs from oxidative stress-induced cycling in native animals and self-renewal defect in transplanted recipients, which was abrogated by genetic ablation or pharmacologic inhibition of PARP-1. Together, these findings suggest that activation of PARP-1 by salidroside could affect the homeostasis and function of HSCs and contribute to the antioxidant effects of salidroside.     

Expression of human adenosine deaminase in mice after transplantation of genetically-modified bone marrow

A high titer retroviral vector was used to transfer a human adenosine deaminase (h-ADA) cDNA into murine bone marrow cells in vitro. The h- ADA cDNA was linked to the retroviral promoter, and the vector also contained a neomycin phosphotransferase gene as a selectable marker. Infected marrow was transplanted into syngeneic W/Wv recipients, and h- ADA expression was monitored for 5.5 months. Several weeks after transplantation, h-ADA was detected in the erythrocytes of all nine recipients, eight of which expressed levels equal to the endogenous enzyme. This level of expression persisted in two of six surviving mice, while expression in three others stabilized at lower, but readily detectable, levels. Only one mouse had no detectable h-ADA after 5.5 months. Vector DNA sequences with common integration sites were found in hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues of the mice at 5.5 months, providing evidence that hematopoietic stem cells had been infected. Furthermore, all mice transplanted with marrow that had been selected in G418 before infusion had multiple vector copies per genome. While this category included the two highest h-ADA expressors, it also included the negative mouse. Thus, multiple copies of the vector were not sufficient to guarantee long-term h-ADA expression. Mice were monitored for "helper virus" infections with an assay designed to detect a wide range of replication-competent retroviruses, including those endogenous to the mouse genome. No helper virus was detected in the two highest h-ADA expressors, ruling out helper-assisted vector spread as a cause of the high h-ADA expression. These results help provide a foundation for the development of somatic gene therapy techniques to be used in the treatment of human disease.