Chondrogenic Differentiation Processes in Human Bone Marrow Aspirates upon rAAV-Mediated Gene Transfer and Overexpression of the Insulin-Like Growth Factor I

Direct therapeutic gene transfer in marrow concentrates is an attractive strategy to conveniently enhance the chondrogenic differentiation processes as a means to improve the healing response of damaged articular cartilage upon reimplantation in sites of injury. In the present study, we evaluated the ability of the clinically adapted recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors to mediate overexpression of the insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) in human bone marrow aspirates that may modulate the proliferative, anabolic activities, and chondrogenic differentiation potential in such samples in vitro. The results demonstrate that successful, significant rAAV-mediated IGF-I gene transfer and expression were achieved in transduced aspirates (up to 105.9 +/- 35.1 pg rhIGF-I/mg total proteins) over time (21 days) at very high levels (similar to 80% of cells expressing the candidate IGF-I transgene), leading to increased levels of proliferation, matrix synthesis, and chondrogenic differentiation over time compared with the control (lacZ) condition. Treatment with the candidate IGF-I vector also stimulated the hypertrophic and osteogenic differentiation processes in the aspirates, suggesting that the regulation of IGF-I expression through rAAV will be a prerequisite for future translation of the approach in vivo. However, these findings show the possible benefits of this vector class to directly modify marrow concentrates as a convenient tool for strategies that aim at improving the repair of articular cartilage lesions.