Expression Patterns of Injected Adenovirus in the Nasal Cavity and Paranasal Sinus Mucosa of the Rat

Yoo, Young Hwa; Park, Yong Jin; Kang, Jun Myung; Kang, Bo Sung; Choi, Jin

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A potential use of gene therapy to deliver therapeutic peptides to the nasal mucosa has not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of using a recombinant adenovirus vector to target the nasal cavity and paranasal sinus mucosa of the rat. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Ten male Sprague Dawley rats were used in this experiments, and adenovirus vectors containing green fluorescent protein (GFP) were injected into rat via tail vein. On fourteen days after gene transfer, 10 rats were sacrificed. The turbinate, nasal septum and paranasal sinus mucosa were examined by fluorescent microscope, and immunohistochemical analysis using anti-GFP antibody was performed.
RESULTS
The turbinate and septal mucosa after injection of adenovirus vector expressing GFP showed diffused distribution of fluorescent produced by GFP. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that GFP expression in the turbinate mucosa was localized to the largely ciliated colmnar epithelium and to some lamnina propria, and that in the septal mucosa, it was localized to the ciliated columnar epithelium. Expression in the turbinate mucosa was more obvious than that in the nasal septal mucosa. There was no expression in the paranasal sinus mucosa.
CONCLUSION
This study suggests that recombinant adenovirus vectors can be used to transfer genes to turbinate and nasal septal mucosa. Gene therapy targeting mucosal epithelium can be a helpful method to treat patients with chronic inflammatory disease of the nasal mucosa such as allergic rhinitis or neoplasm of the nasal cavity.