Study on Gene Transfer of Polyethylenimine as a Nonviral Vector in Vitro

OBJECTIVE To investigate the optimum condition of polyethylenimine(PEI) for gene transfer to A549 cells.METHODS The cytotoxicity of PEI was evaluated by mononuclear cell cytotoxicity assay(MTT).In different conditions, PEI was the vector, and A549 cells were transfected with fluorescent protein(pEGFP-C3) gene.Expression efficiency of the transduced gene was monitored by fluorescence miceoscopy and fluorescence assay system.RESULTS The optimal transfection efficiency of PEI Mw (0.25×103) was obtained at N/P ratio equaled to 10. CONCLUSION PEI is an inexpensive,low cytotoxicity and high efficiency vector.It can be widely used in the area of gene therapy.