A cost-effective method to enhance adenoviral transduction of primary murine osteoblasts and bone marrow stromal cells

Gene delivery to bone cells has been improved by use of a common compound, potentially making bone research cheaper and more efficient. Delivery of genes to cultured bone and bone marrow cells can be used to study the effects of specific genes in bone development and disease, but the standard technique of delivering genes using adenovirus is inefficient. Joseph Stains from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and colleagues have shown that the technique can be improved by adding poly-L-lysine with the adenovirus. Poly-L-lysine increased the percentage of cells that genes were delivered to, and increased the efficiency of delivery to each cell. The technique provides a simple way to increase the efficiency of genetic experiments in bone cells and consequently reduce their cost.