Synthesis And Gene Transfection Efficacies Of Hydroxylated Cationic Polymer

Polyethyleneimine (PEI) is considered to be one of the most effective cationic polymers as gene transfection vectors. Its transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity depends on the molecular weight. Generally, transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity increased with higher relative molecular weight. People have been committed to finding a gene delivery carrier with high efficiency and low cytotoxicity.Studies have shown that the parent chain of the polymer with hydroxyl can not only improve its water-solubility, degradation and the transfection efficiency,but also decreased the cytotoxicity. In this paper,72cationic polymers were prepared by cross-linking different molecular weights of PEI with a variety of two or more epoxy-based cross-linkers.The polymers with good water-solubility were assessed when B16F10cells, A549cells were used as receptor cells and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was used as report gene. Several hydroxylated cationic polymers with high transfer efficacy were filtered out. The C14/DNA complexes exhibited5.5-fold gene transfection efficiency and reduce cytotoxicity in cultured cell lines, compared to the native bPEI25kDa. As can be seen in particle size analysis, particle size of C14/DNA complexes was found to be in the range of139-197nm. In summary, the results indicate that C14is a new efficient reagent for gene delivery in vitro.