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Lipid Transfection

Lipid transfection is referred to with a variety of names: lipid-mediated gene delivery, lipofection, and liposome-based gene transfection, among others. Each name refer to the same process, though: using lipids to cause a cell to absorb DNA from outside itself.

Lipid transfection takes advantage of the cellular double membrane's porousness to water-soluble molecules and to lipid-solubles through specific channels. The lipid is matched to the peptide sequence that needs to be uptaken into the cell, and the cell is then placed in a bath of the lipid with that peptide sequence. The peptide is taken into the cell through the same path that the ordinary lipid is adsorbed.

The peptide escapes from the endosome/lysosome complex it is taken into and makes its way through the cytoplasm to the nucleus, where it translocated through the nuclear membrane to the cell nucleus and is transcribed with the rest of the cellular DNA. The last step is the hardest part; the first two steps are relatively easy and efficient with today's technology. A number of different technologies are utilized to improve the third step.

Web Resources On Lipid Transfection

Insulin receptor activation and down-regulation by cationic lipid transfection reagents
Efficient and Reliable Transfection of Mouse Erythroleukemia Cells Using Cationic Lipids

Book Resources On Lipid Transfection

Understanding Gene Therapy by Lemoine & Vile (Editors)
Gene Therapy of Cancer by Lattime & Gerson

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