| 초록 |
Gene therapy is a new approach in the treatment of numerous diseases caused by damage to or lack of certain genes. Polyethylenimine (PEI) is a non-degradable gene carrier with high transfection efficiency. Also, the PEI has high cytotoxicity, which is dependant on its molecular weight. The copolymers were synthesized using low molecular weight branched PEI (1.2 KDa) with a hydrophilic and biodegradable glycerol dimethacrylate through Michael addition reaction by the method in our earlier reports. The polymer/DNA complexes were characterized by gel retardation assay and dynamic light scattering (DLS) to determine the complex forming ability and particle size, respectively. The copolymers were analyzed for their cytotoxicity and transfection efficiency on HeLa, HepG2 and 293T. In vitro and in vivo transfection assays revealed the superiority of PEAs over PEI 25K. Degradable branched PEAs markedly showed low cytotoxicity even at high polymer concentrations compared with PEI 25K. |
