Lethiferous effects of a recombinant vector carrying thymidine kinase suicide gene on 2.2.15 cells via a self-modulating mechanism

Figure 1 Construction scheme of recombinant plasmid pcDNA₃-SCITK.

Figure 2 A: RT-PCR products of HCV IRES element. M: marker (2 kb), Lanes 1-3: HCV IRES element (330 bp). B. Component segment analysis of pcDNA₃-SCITK by agarose gel electrophoresis. M: marker (2 kb), Lanes 1-2: SCI-TK fragment demonstrated by PCR with HBV-S gene sense primer and TK antisense primer (5’-ACTTCCGTGGCTTCTTGCTG-3’ (nt 150-170). Lane 3: SCI fragment verified by PCR with HBV-S gene sense primer and HCV IRES antisense primer. Lane 4: SI segment from the ligation of HBV-S and HCV-Core gene by SOEing PCR. Lane 5: RT-PCR product of HCV-Core gene. Lane 6: Partial antisense segment of HBV-S gene.

Figure 3 Effects of pcDNA₃-SCITK expression on morphological alterations of 2. 2.15 and HepG2 cells. Photographs a, b and c in each group exhibited respectively the cell changes on the 1^st, 3^rd and 6^th day post transfection. Lethiferous changes of 2.2.15 cells transfected with pcDNA₃-SCITK were noted initially on the 3^rd day of posttransfection and aggravated on the 6^th day after transfection, in which the majority of cells were observed shrunken, rounded in shape and even dead. However, the negative contrl HepG2 cells grew well.