Hyaluronic Acid and Fibrin Hydrogels with Concentrated DNA/ PEI Polyplexes for Local Gene Delivery

Authors

Yuguo Lei, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Maha Rahim, University of California, Los Angeles
Quinn Ng, University of California, Los Angeles
Tatiana Segura, University of California, Los Angeles

Date of this Version

2011

Document Type

Article

Citation

J Control Release. 2011 August 10; 153(3): 255–261.

Comments

Copyright 2011 Elsevier. Used by permission.

Abstract

Local delivery of DNA through a hydrogel scaffold would increase the applicability of gene therapy in tissue regeneration and cancer therapy. However, the delivery of DNA/cationic polymer nanoparticles (polyplexes) using hydrogels is challenging due to the aggregation and inactivation of polyplexes during their incorporation into hydrogel scaffolds. We developed a novel process (termed Caged Nanoparticle Encapsulation or CnE) to load concentrated and unaggregated nonviral gene delivery nanoparticles into various hydrogels. Previously, we showed that PEG hydrogels loaded with DNA/PEI polyplexes through this process were able to deliver genes both in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we found that hyaluronic acid and fibrin hydrogels with concentrated and unaggregated polyplexes loaded through CnE were able to deliver genes in vivo as well, demonstrating the universality of the process.