Evaluation and comparison of chitosan-alginate and chitosan nanoparticles in term of physical characteristics, transfection and cytotoxicity as a gene vector

Subject Areas : Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology journal

Received: 2017-11-05 Accepted : 2017-11-05 Published : 2014-02-20

Keywords: Nanparticles, Chitosan, Alginate, characterization, Cell viability, In vitro transfection,

Abstract :

The use of polymer vectors is a safe and efficient way for gene delivery to target cells. Nanoparticles comprisingchitosan and chitosan/alginate polymers were formed through pregel preparation method.Size and surface charge of nanoparticles were examined by scanning electron microscopy and Malvern zeta sizerZS respectively.Chitosan and alginate/chitosan nanoparticles had a mean Z-average diameter of 161.8 nm and 235 nm and meanzeta potential of 45 mV and -18.6 mV, respectively. Transfection of pEGFP_N1 plasmid in the cultured HEK293 cells was then performed. The efficiency of 20.6% and 30.8% for chitosan and chitosan/alginatenanoparticles were achieved by flow cytometry. Cell viability was evaluated by MTT assay.Nananoparticlesdisplayed no toxic effect on HEK 293 cells after 4 or 24 h.