title: Gene Expression and Pulmonary Toxicity of Chitosan-graft- Polyethylenimine as Aerosol Gene Carrier.
abstract: Chitosan-graft-polyethylenimine (CHI-g-PEI) copolymer has been used for the improvement of low transfection efficiency of chitosan. The present study aims to test the pulmonary toxicity and efficiency of CHI-g-PEI as an aerosol gene carrier. Mice were exposed to aerosol containing green-fluorescent protein (GFP)-polyethylenimine (PEI) or GFP-CHI-g-PEI complexes for 30 min during the development of our nose-only exposure chamber (NOEC) system. CHI-g-PEI-mediated aerosol delivery demonstrated 15.65% enhancement of the fluorescence intensity. Compared to PEI, CHI-g-PEI showed no significant pulmonary toxicity. In summary, using CHI-g-PEI is safe and shows high transfection in aerosol gene delivery to animals, and enhanced efficiency was achieved through our aerosol gene delivery system. Therefore, CHI-g-PEI and this system would be applicable to future study for aerosol gene therapy.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Toxicology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul 151-742, Korea.
authors.forename: Jung-Taek
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.forename: Hu-Lin
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Arash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Minai-Tehrani
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gyu Woo
authors.forename: Mansoo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Chong-Su
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Yeon-Soo
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Myung-Haing
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Cho
keywords: Aerosol delivery; Chitosan; Gene carrier; Polyethylenimine; Pulmonary toxicity