title: Low molecular weight polyethylenimine grafted N-maleated chitosan for gene delivery: properties and in vitro transfection studies.
abstract: To develop chitosan-based efficient gene vectors, chitosans with different molecular weights were chemically modified with low molecular weight polyethylenimine. The molecular weight and composition of polyethylenimine grafted N-maleated chitosan (NMC-g-PEI) copolymers were characterized using gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and (1)H NMR, respectively. Agarose gel electrophoresis assay showed that NMC-g-PEI had good binding ability with DNA, and the particle size of the NMC-g-PEI/DNA complexes was 200-400 nm, as determined by a Zeta sizer. The nanosized complexes observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) exhibited a compact and spherical morphology. The NMC-g-PEI copolymers showed low cytotoxicity and good transfection activity, comparable to PEI (25 KDa) in both 293T and HeLa cell lines, except for NMC 50K-g-PEI. The results indicated that the molecular weight of NMC-g-PEI has an important effect on cytotoxicity and transfection activity, and low molecular weight NMC-g-PEI has a good potential as efficient nonviral gene vectors.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biomedical Polymers of Ministry of Education and Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Xiao-Ding
authors.initials: XD
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xian-Zheng
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Si-Xue
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Ren-Xi
authors.initials: RX
authors.lastname: Zhuo
mesh_terms: D002021:Buffers; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D002845:Chromatography / Q000379:methods; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D005822:Genetic Vectors / Q000737:chemistry*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / Q000379:methods; D008970:Molecular Weight; D011094:Polyethyleneimine / Q000737:chemistry*; D011485:Protein Binding; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D002021:Buffers; D011094:Polyethyleneimine; D004247:DNA; D048271:Chitosan