Effect of Polyethylenimine Content on Liposome/Polyethylenimine Complexes-Mediated Gene Delivery

• Published in: 东华大学学报（英文版） Vol. 34; no. 2; pp. 195 - 198
• Main Author: 周小军 秦明 陈良 聂伟 莫秀梅 何创龙
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China 30.04.2017; State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China%College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China%State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China
• Subjects: gene delivery; cytotoxicity; polyethylenimine (PEI); liposome (Lipo)
• ISSN: 1672-5220

Cationic liposome（Lipo） and polyethylenimine（PEI） are widely applied for nonviral gene transfection.In this study,in order to combine the favorable properties of Lipo and PEI systems for gene delivery,Lipo/PEI complexes with different contents of PEI（5%,10%,20% and 40% relative to phosphatidyl choline in reaction system） were prepared.The physicochemical properties of Lipo/PEI complexes,as well as the influences of PEI content on the storage stability,cytotoxicity and transfection efficiency were investigated.The transmission electron microscopy（TEM） images showed that Lipo/PEI complexes had smaller size compared to pure Lipo.The zeta potential values decreased with the increasing content of PEI.After storaged for 3 months at 4 ℃,obvious aggregation was observed when the addition of PEI content was up to 20%.In vitro cytotoxicity assay showed that Lipo/PEI complexes had decreased cytotoxicity over pure PEI,while the cytotoxicity was enhanced as the PEI content increased.Importantly,the luciferase activity assay and confocal microscope observation revealed that Lipo/PEI complexes prepared with the lowest amount of PEI（Lipo/PEI-5%）possessed the highest transfection efficiency.Thus,these results suggest that feeding the appropriate content of PEI in Lipo/PEI complexes allows them to be excellent vehicle for gene delivery.