Adenoviral-mediated gene transfer in wound healing: acute inflammatory response in human skin in the SCID mouse model

The use of an adenoviral vector as a means of therapeutic protein delivery for the treatment of impaired wound healing is a potentially effective application of current gene transfer techniques. This study was designed to investigate the ability of adenovirus to mediate gene transfer in healing wounds in human skin in vivo. The human skin/severe combined immunodeficient mouse chimera model was used to study both the response of human tissue to adenoviral infection and the nature of the acute inflammatory response. The effects of adenoviral infection and transgene expression on the rate and quality of human wound healing were then investigated. Cell- and species-specific monoclonal antibodies were used to characterize the resident skin cell types participating in wound repair, the inflammatory response, and the proliferative potential of adenovirus-treated compared to control skin. Our studies show that, following wounding, normal skin architecture is restored in the presence of adenoviral infection equivalent to noninfected controls. Despite an increased acute inflammatory response after adenovirus injection, no difference in the healing capabilities of wounded skin was observed, suggesting that adenovirus-mediated gene transfer for growth factor-mediated acceleration of wound healing may be feasible.