Polyethyleneimine-mediated gene delivery into rat pheochromocytoma PC-12 cells

In this study, we examined the use of polyethyleneimine (PEI) as a non-viral gene carrier and lipofectamine™ 2000 as control for rat pheochromocytoma PC-12 cells. The complex formation of PEI and DNA or lipofectamine and DNA was characterized by gel electrophoresis and measurement of particle size and surface charge. A gradual increase in surface charge (from 0.7 to 43 mV) and a gradual decrease in particle size (from 900 to 130 nm) was observed in the PEI-DNA complex with higher PEI concentrations. The cytotoxicity of PC-12 cells for lipofectamine-DNA complex was similar to PEI-DNA complex at N: P charge ratios of 4 and 8. Transfection efficiency was 14% for lipofectamine and 15% for PEI. At low N: P ratio, DNA condenses poorly, so the particle size tends to be large and polydispersed, resulting in poor transfection efficiency. Meanwhile, a high N: P ratio results in high transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity. Transfected PC-12 cells showed the generation of neurites from transfected PC-12 cells in the presence of NGF, indicating the differentiation of PC-12 cells. NGF-differentiated PC-12 cells were transfected by PEI-DNA complex of N: P charge ratio 8. From real-time imaging for transfection, the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) started to localize in the nuclei of PC-12 cells at 5 h and localized in the cytoplasm from 15 h. Our study demonstrates that PEI or lipofectamine may be applied as an effective gene carrier for PC-12 cells.