Comparison of Sendai Virus-Mediated Gene Transfer Efficiency to Adhesive and Floating Adipose Tissue-Derived Stem Cells

Sendai virus (SeV) vectors have potential clinical applications because they can efficiently introduce foreign genes without toxicity into various organs. A recent study reported the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene transfer to adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ASCs) with SeV vectors results in more efficient expression of GFP than AdV and identified the preservation of the multilineage potential of ASCs transfected with SeV vectors. This study assessed the gene transfer efficiency to floating ASCs with SeV vectors. Although a slight cytotoxicity was observed, the efficiency of gene transfer to cells in the floating state was much higher at all times and all concentrations at MOIs of 2, 10, and 20 than in the adhesion state. Moreover, ASCs transfected with SeV vectors in floating state have the same potential for their differentiation into specific tissues, such as adipocytes and osteocytes, as untransfected ASCs. These data suggest that SeV transfection to ASCs in the floating state could therefore be useful for gene transfer technology.