Adenoviral Gene Transfer into -Cell Lines

The proper functioning of the insulin-producing β-cells in the pancreas depends on the action of various proteins whose function and level of expression are tightly regulated in order to maintain a well state. Alterations in these processes can lead to diseased states such as diabetes mellitus. In order to understand the complexity of these processes, it is imperative that scientists can alter the levels of expression of various genes in order to define their role in maintaining β-cell function. This can be accomplished through multiple techniques, of which the adenoviral gene transfer is the most efficient one. Gene-transfer techniques utilizing recombinant adenoviruses have become an important tool in controlling the expression level of genes of interest (1 ). Adenoviral gene transfer is also important in gene therapy of many inherited disorders (2 ). Recombinant adenoviruses are commonly used for the overexpression of transgenes and can also be used to downregulate genes of interest through the expression of antisense ribozymes and Cre-recombinase (1 ,2 ).