Enhanced electro-mediated gene delivery using carrier genes

Low wtransfection and expression of target genes has been a problem in gene delivery for clinical therapy. In this study, we present a method for enhancing the transfection efficiency of target genes by electroporation using carrier genes. To evaluate the transfection efficiency, we transfected HeLa cells with luciferase genes (pGL3-control) and then measured the luciferase activity. In our experiments, the prokaryotic expression vector pCR2.1 was used as a carrier gene in the electro-mediated gene delivery. The result shows that the luciferase gene can be effectively transferred into the cell membrane with the aid of carrier genes. In the presence of carrier genes, luciferase activities increased two- to three-fold compared with that in the absence of carrier genes. We also investigated the effect of the weight ratio of luciferase genes to carrier genes on transfection efficiency and found no significant relationship between them. Consequently, we believe that carrier genes are potentially beneficial for promoting transfection and expression of target genes in biological applications. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.