Insights into the mechanisms of electromediated gene delivery and application to the loading of giant vesicles with negatively charged macromolecules

We present experimental results regarding the electrotransfer of plasmid DNA into phosphatidylcholine giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs). Our observations indicate that a direct entry is the predominant mechanism of electrotransfer. A quantitative analysis of the DNA concentration increments inside the GUVs is also performed, and we find that our experimental data are very well described by a simple theoretical model in which DNA entry is mostly driven by electrophoresis. Our theoretical framework allows for the prediction of the amount of transferred DNA as a function of the electric field parameters, and thus paves the way towards a novel method for encapsulating with high efficiency not only DNA, but any negatively charged macromolecules into GUVs.