The treatment of most head and neck cancer patients includes ionizing radiation (IR).
Salivary glands in the IR field suffer irreversible damage. Previously, we reported that
adenoviral (Ad)-mediated transfer of the human aquaporin-1 (hAQP1) cDNA to rat
submandibular glands following IR restored salivary flow to near normal levels. It is unclear
if this strategy is useful in larger animals. Herein, we evaluated AdhAQP1-mediated gene
transfer after parotid gland IR (20 Gy) in the miniature pig. Sixteen weeks following IR …

A replication-deficient, recombinant adenovirus encoding human aquaporin-1 (hAQP1), the
archetypal water channel, was constructed. This virus, AdhAQP1, directed hAQP1
expression in several epithelial cell lines in vitro. In polarized MDCK cell monolayers,
hAQP1 was localized in the apical and basolateral plasma membranes. Fluid movement
across monolayers infected by AdhAQP1 in response to an osmotic gradient was≈ 4-fold
that seen with uninfected monolayers or monolayers infected by a control virus. When …