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Improvement in Electrotransfection of Cells Using Carbon-Based Electrodes

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Abstract

Electrotransfection has been widely used as a versatile, non-viral method for gene delivery. However, electrotransfection efficiency (eTE) is still low and unstable, compared to viral methods. To understand potential mechanisms of the problems, we investigated effects of electrode materials on eTE and viability of mammalian cells. Data from the study showed that commonly used metal electrodes generated a significant amount of particles during application of pulsed electric field, which could cause precipitation of plasmid DNA from solutions, thereby reducing eTE. For aluminum electrodes, the particles were composed of aluminum hydroxide and/or aluminum oxide, and their median sizes were 300–400 nm after the buffer was pulsed 4–8 times at 400 V cm−1, 5 ms duration and 1 Hz frequency. The precipitation could be prevented by using carbon (graphite) electrodes in electrotransfection experiments. The use of carbon electrodes also increased cell viability. Taken together, the study suggested that electrodes made of electrochemically inert materials were desirable for electrotransfection of cells in vitro.

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported partly by grants from National Institutes of Health (GM098520) and National Science Foundation (BES-0828630).

Conflict of Interest

Chun-Chi Chang, Mao Mao, Yang Liu, Mina Wu, Tuan Vo-Dinh, and Fan Yuan declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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No human or animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, 1427 FCIEMAS, Box 90281, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Chun-Chi Chang, Mao Mao, Yang Liu, Mina Wu, Tuan Vo-Dinh & Fan Yuan

  2. Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Yang Liu & Tuan Vo-Dinh

  3. Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Yang Liu, Tuan Vo-Dinh & Fan Yuan

Authors
  1. Chun-Chi Chang
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  2. Mao Mao
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  3. Yang Liu
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  5. Tuan Vo-Dinh
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  6. Fan Yuan
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Correspondence to Fan Yuan.

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Associate Editor Alyssa Panitch oversaw the review of this article.

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Chang, CC., Mao, M., Liu, Y. et al. Improvement in Electrotransfection of Cells Using Carbon-Based Electrodes. Cel. Mol. Bioeng. 9, 538–545 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12195-016-0452-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12195-016-0452-9

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