Biology · Mar 5, 2026

Intravenous rAAV9 Produces Time-Resolved Parenchymal Labeling Downstream of the Vasculature in Adult Mice

By Soto-Avellaneda A, Pugel AD, Holmes JR et al.

Intravenous delivery of recombinant adeno-associated virus serotype 9 can lead to reporter activation in cell types beyond the vasculature, but the routes enabling downstream parenchymal labeling remain unclear. Here, we provide a systematic, time-resolved map of parenchymal labeling after a single intravenous dose of rAAV9 encoding Cre recombinase under a ubiquitous promoter in healthy adult Ai9 reporter mice. Following retro-orbital administration, we quantified tdTomato-positive labeling across 25 targets at multiple time points over six months and observed durable reporter activation in several nonvascular parenchymal populations relevant to systemic gene-delivery applications. We also identify a set of parenchymal cell types that are consistently labeled in both this vascularly initiated reporter system and our prior adult VE-cadherin-driven reporter paradigm, supporting a connection to vascular exposure without asserting lineage relationships. These results nominate mechanistic routes for future disambiguation, including viral transcytosis across endothelium, endothelial cell transdifferentiation and extracellular-vesicle-mediated transfer. The dataset and methods provide a reference framework for investigators optimizing systemic delivery and interpreting downstream labeling in vivo.

doi.org/10.3390/biology15050421 Open access PubMed 41823848 Interventions