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Starburst low‐molecular weight polyethylenimine for efficient gene delivery
Author(s) -
Zhao Yanjun,
Yang Rulei,
Liu Dong,
Sun Mingjing,
Zhou Lijun,
Wang Zheng,
Wan Ying
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.33250
Subject(s) - polyethylenimine , hela , gene delivery , cytotoxicity , materials science , polyethylene glycol , transfection , peg ratio , conjugated system , microbiology and biotechnology , biophysics , nanotechnology , cell , gene , biology , biochemistry , polymer , in vitro , composite material , finance , economics
Low‐molecular weight polyethylenimine (LMW PEI) shows the advantage of low‐cytotoxicity, but has been inefficient in gene delivery as a consequence of the low‐charge density. A number of previous studies employed the approach of crosslinking to solve this problem. In this study, a starburst LMW PEI gene vector has been developed. It has a polyamidoamine (PAMAM) core conjugated with a shell composed of LWM PEI and polyethylene glycol (PEG), that is PAMAM‐PEI‐PEG. Plasmid DNA (pEGFP‐N1) and human cervix epithelial carcinoma (HeLa) cells were used in the study. The results showed that the starburst LMW PEI could effectively condense DNA at N/P above 5. The polyplexes had a size of about 500 nm and a nearly neutral surface because of the PEG shielding effect. This novel gene vector is able to maintain the low‐cytotoxicity of LMW PEI, whereas its transfection efficiency was significantly improved. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A, 2012.