Help: transduction of primary blood cells (T): lentiviral vs. adenoviral vector - (May/04/2012 )

I am looking to express target proteins in primary blood cells, particularly CD4+ T cells.

Transduction uses lentiviral vs. adenoviral vector system, which one is better?

Anyone experienced in this and has more other suggestions? Thanks a lot!

I have worked with the lenti viral system though mostly in the context of knocking down genes. The main difference between the lenti and adeno virus systems is the integration pattern. Lenti virus is able to integrate into the genome and hence it is suitable for long term studies. Adeno virus is able to transduce both dividing and non dividing cells but do not integrate into the genome and hence useful for short term studies since you need re infections to keep up the expression. The decision to use one or the other depends on the purpose of your study.

No matter which system you use, primary cells are really hard to infect compared to normal cell lines.