title: Stimulation of gene transfection by silicon nanowire arrays modified with polyethylenimine.
abstract: In this work, a novel gene delivery strategy was proposed based on silicon nanowire arrays modified with high-molecular-weight 25 kDa branched polyethylenimine (SN-PEI). Both the plasmid DNA (pDNA) binding capacity and the in vitro gene transfection efficiency of silicon nanowire arrays (SiNWAs) were significantly enhanced after modification with high-molecular-weight bPEI. Moreover, the transfection efficiency was substantially further increased by the introduction of free pDNA/PEI complexes formed by low-molecular-weight branched PEI (bPEI, 2 kDa). Additionally, factors affecting the in vitro transfection efficiency of the novel gene delivery system were investigated in detail, and the transfection efficiency was optimized on SN-PEI with a bPEI grafting time of 3 h, an incubation time of 10 min for tethered pDNA/PEI complexes consisting of high-molecular-weight bPEI grafted onto SiNWAs, and with an N/P ratio of 80 for free pDNA/PEI complexes made of low-molecular-weight bPEI. Together, our results indicate that high-molecular-weight bPEI modified SiNWAs can serve as an efficient platform for gene delivery.
authors.affiliation: The Key Lab of Health Chemistry and Molecular Diagnosis of Suzhou, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University , Suzhou 215123, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Zhonglin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lyu
authors.forename: Wenwen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D053770:Nanowires / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D011094:Polyethyleneimine / Q000737:chemistry*; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D014162:Transfection / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D011094:Polyethyleneimine; D012825:Silicon