Retroviral gene transfer to human epidermal keratinocytes correlates with integrin expression and is significantly enhanced on fibronectin.

Human epidermal keratinocytes are an important target for gene therapy because they can be easily expanded in culture and used to generate skin substitutes for the treatment of wounds, genetic diseases of the skin, and for delivery of proteins to the systemic circulation. Although retroviral transduction results in permanent genetic modification, differentiation and loss of transduced cells from the epidermis results in temporary transgene expression. To ensure permanent genetic modification, epidermal stem cells must be transduced with high efficiency.