title: Impedance spectroscopy as an indicator for successful in vivo electric field mediated gene delivery in a murine model.
abstract: In vivo gene electro transfer technology has been very successful both in animal models and in clinical trials over the past 20years. However, variable transfection efficiencies can produce inconsistent outcomes. This can be due to differences in tissue architecture and/or chemical composition which may effectively create unique biological environments from subject to subject that may respond differently to the identical electric pulses. This study investigates the integration of impedance spectroscopy into the gene electro transfer process to measure murine skin impedance spectra before, during (after pulse delivery), and after gene electro transfer pulse application to determine if changes in impedance correlate with reporter gene expression. Both post-treatment impedance spectra and gene expression were dependent upon the applied electric field strength. These results indicate that alterations in tissue impedance produced by the applied electric field represent an excellent parameter to predict degrees of transfection and gene expression. These results could ultimately be used to alter pulsing parameters in order to optimize delivery/expression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA.
authors.forename: Reginald M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Atkins
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA; Research Computing, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA; Center for Molecular Delivery at USF, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA. Electronic address: tfawcett@usf.edu.
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Fawcett
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA; Center for Molecular Delivery at USF, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular Delivery at USF, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA; Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hoff
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA; Center for Molecular Delivery at USF, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Connolly
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 777 Atlantic Dr. NW, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
authors.forename: Douglas W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA; Center for Molecular Delivery at USF, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA.
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Llewellyn
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA; Center for Molecular Delivery at USF, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave. ENB 118, Tampa, FL 33620, USA.
authors.forename: Mark J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Jaroszeski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058266:Dielectric Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D018274:Electroporation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D015870:Gene Expression; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D008156:Luciferases / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C
chemical_list: D008156:Luciferases
keywords: Electroporation; Impedance spectroscopy