Incorporation of Active DNA/Cationic Polymer Polyplexes into Hydrogel Scaffolds

Authors

Yuguo Lei, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Suxian Huang, University of California, Los Angeles
Pooria Sharif-Kashani, University of California, Los Angeles
Yong Chen, University of California, Los Angeles
Pirouz Kavehpour, University of California, Los Angeles
Tatiana Segura, University of California, Los Angeles

Date of this Version

2010

Document Type

Article

Citation

Biomaterials. 2010 December ; 31(34): 9106–9116

Comments

© 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Abstract

The effective and sustained delivery of DNA and siRNAs locally would increase the applicability of gene therapy in tissue regeneration and cancer therapy. One promising approach is to use hydrogel scaffolds to encapsulate and deliver nucleotides in the form of nanoparticles to the disease sites. However, this approach is currently limited by the inability to load concentrated and active gene delivery nanoparticles into the hydrogels due to the severe nanoparticle aggregation during the loading process. Here, we present a process to load concentrated and un-aggregated non-viral gene delivery nanoparticles, using DNA/polyethylene imine (PEI) polyplexes as an example, into neutral polyethylene glycol (PEG), negatively charged hyaluronic acid (HA) and protein fibrin hydrogels crosslinked through various chemistries. The encapsulated polyplexes are highly active both in vitro and in vivo. We believe this process will significantly advance the applications of hydrogel scaffold mediated non-viral gene delivery in tissue regeneration and cancer therapy.