Formation and structure of PEI/DNA complexes: quantitative analysis

Controlled formation of gene delivery complexes (DNA and a vector, usually a cationic polymer) is one of the key challenges in developing efficient gene delivery systems. The researchers focused their procedures on the ratio of vector to DNA, neglecting the influence of concentration on the complex formation process. In this study we show, by studying the association of polyethylenimine (PEI) and 66-base pair (bp) DNA fragments, that the concentration of the gene delivery system greatly influences the formation of PEI/DNA complexes even at a fixed PEI/DNA ratio. We find that the charge and the size of PEI/DNA complexes are increasing functions of their concentration even in a highly dilute regime of concentrations. The number of PEI/DNA molecules in a complex was calculated from the measured charge and electrophoretic mobility. We established a model, on the basis of Smoluchowski theory, to explain the relation between the concentration and the size of PEI/DNA complexes. We analyzed the structure of the complexes and found out that a large proportion of space in the PEI/DNA complexes is occupied by the solvent. This study indicates that the influence of concentration should be seriously considered in gene delivery studies, since large PEI/DNA complexes can be prepared by scaling up their concentration simultaneously without increasing the dosage of PEI.