Favorable effect of cotransfection with TGF-beta and CTLA4Ig of the donor kidney on allograft survival.

Background/aims: Gene transfer of viral interleukin 10 (vIL-10) or transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) successfully prolonged liver and heart graft survival. Here we assessed whether injection of adenovirus (Ad) coding vIL-10 (AdvIL-10) or TGF-beta3 (AdTGF-beta3) prolonged kidney allograft survival. Since we previously demonstrated that transfection of the donor kidney with CTLA4Ig significantly prolonged allograft survival, we also evaluated the effect of a combined injection of AdvIL-10 or AdTGF-beta3 with the AdCTLA4Ig.

Cell death induced by down-regulation of heat shock protein 70 in lung cancer cell lines is p53-independent and does not require DNA cleavage.

Objective: The inducible form of heat shock protein 70 is known to be overexpressed in tumors and seems to be necessary for the survival of tumor cells via an unknown mechanism. We therefore evaluated whether selective depletion of heat shock protein 70 induces cell death in lung cancer cells.

Methods: An adenovirus expressing antisense heat shock protein 70 and an adenovirus with beta-galactosidase were used for transduction of the lung cancer cell lines A549, NCI-H358, LXF-289, LOU-NH91, normal human bronchial epithelial cells, and normal lung fibroblasts IMR90.