Polyethyleneimine-poly(ethylene glycol)-star-copolymers as efficient and biodegradable vectors for mammalian cell transfection.

High molecular weight (MW) polyethyleneimine (PEI) has been successfully used for the transfection of a broad variety of cell lines. In contrast to low MW PEI, which exhibits low transfection efficiencies but also low cytotoxicity, high MW PEI-mediated transfection achieves much higher efficiencies but at the cost of cell viability; therefore its use in commercial scale transfection and clinical application is limited. In this work we address this problem by constructing biodegradable high MW PEI mimics built from low MW PEI building blocks. The end-groups of small 5-arm star polyethylene glycol (PEG) prepolymers were decorated with linear oligo-ethyleneimine (OEI)/PEI arms of various MW via azomethine linkages. The resultant PEI-PEG-star-copolymers were investigated for their ability to complex plasmid DNA. Polymer/DNA complexes were characterized using techniques such as dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy. Having established their cytotoxicity limits, they were tested as gene delivery vehicles for the transfection of suspension adapted Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-S) cells under serum-free conditions and adherent human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293T) in serum containing medium. Our PEI-PEG-star-copolymers showed a reduced cytotoxicity compared to high MW PEI while maintaining the ability to complex plasmid DNA and transfect mammalian cells, with significant transfection efficiencies. The effects of the optimum parameters on the transfection of mammalian cells using such novel polymers are discussed.

Structural and morphological transformations of mesostructured titanium phosphate through hydrothermal treatment.

The phase transformation of mesostructured titanium phosphate (TiPO) from hexagonal to lamellar structure was observed in a simply hydrothermal treatment, accompanied by drastically morphological changes in the micrometer-sized particles. XRD pattern revealed that different mesostructures were obtained by simply varying hydrothermal temperature or treatment duration. SEM and TEM observations showed the morphological evolution from individual particles to interconnected nanoplatelets. A significant blue shift in UV-vis spectra was observed for lamellar mesostructured material, which may be associated with the different coordinated Ti-sites in the hexagonal and lamellar mesostructures. FT-IR spectra and detailed (31)P MAS NMR studies indicated that additional POH groups were presented in the lamellar structure, which might play a key role in the structural and morphological transformations of mesostructures.