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Pluripotent stem cells of the early embryo, and germ line cells, are essential to ensure uncompromised development to adulthood as well as species propagation, respectively. Recently, the transcription factor hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha (Hif1α) has been shown to have important roles in embryonic stem cells; in particular, regulation of conversion to glycolytic metabolism and, as we have shown, maintenance of functional levels of telomerase. In the present study, we sought to assess whether Hif1α was also expressed in the primitive cells of the murine embryo. We observed expression of Hif1α in pre-implantation embryos, specifically the 2-cell stage, morula, and blastocyst. Robust Hif1α expression was also observed in male and female primordial germ cells. We subsequently assessed whether Hif1α was expressed in adult male and female germ cells. In the testis, Hif1α was robustly expressed in spermatogonial cells, in both juvenile (6-week old) and adult (3-month old) males. In the ovaries, Hif1α was expressed in mature oocytes from adult females, as assessed both in situ and in individual oocytes flushed from super-ovulated females. Analysis of Hif1α transcript levels indicates a mechanism of regulation during early development that involves stockpiling of Hif1α protein in mature oocytes, presumably to provide protection from hypoxic stress until the gene is re-activated at the blastocyst stage. Together, these observations show that Hif1α is expressed throughout the life-cycle, including both the male and female germ line, and point to an important role for Hif1α in early progenitor cells.

The ability of monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) to travel towards chemotactic gradient, traverse tissue barriers, and accumulate precisely at diseased sites makes them attractive candidates as drug carriers and therapeutic gene delivery vehicles targeting the brain, where treatments are often hampered by the blockade of the blood brain barrier (BBB). This study was designed to fully establish an optimized cell-based delivery system using monocytes and MDM, by evaluating their homing efficiency, engraftment potential, as well as carriage and delivery ability to transport nano-scaled particles and exogenous genes into the brain, following the non-invasive intravenous (IV) cell adoptive transfer in an acute neuroinflammation mouse model induced by intracranial injection of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharides. We demonstrated that freshly isolated monocytes had superior inflamed-brain homing ability over MDM cultured in the presence of macrophage colony stimulating factor. In addition, brain trafficking of IV infused monocytes was positively correlated with the number of adoptive transferred cells, and could be further enhanced by transient disruption of the BBB with IV administration of Mannitol, Bradykinin or Serotonin right before cell infusion. A small portion of transmigrated cells was detected to differentiate into IBA-1 positive cells with microglia morphology in the brain. Finally, with the use of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles SHP30, the ability of nanoscale agent-carriage monocytes to enter the inflamed brain region was validated. In addition, lentiviral vector DHIV-101 was used to introduce green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene into monocytes, and the exogenous GFP gene was detected in the brain at 48 hours following IV infusion of the transduced monocytes. All together, our study has set up the optimized conditions for the more-in-depth tests and development of monocyte-mediated delivery, and our data supported the notion to use monocytes as a non-invasive cell-based delivery system for the brain.