| 초록 |
Gene therapy provides significantly important opportunities to treat various kinds of life-threatening and gene related-disease by producing biologically active agents or stopping abnormal functions of the cells such as genetic failure or uncontrollable proliferation of cells. Among the various gene carriers, chitosan has also been attractive gene carrier, because of its high positive charges and low toxicity to cells. Chitosan is a natural product, and its low toxicity was well-established. Chitosan was first described as a delivery system for plasmids by Mumper et al. In this study, we revealed the characterization as a gene carrier of low molecualr water soluble chitosan (LMWSC) having various molecular weight, 5K, 10K, 20K, 50K. The plasmid/LMWSC (20K) complexes were completely retarded above a 1:4 weight ratio of plasmid:LMWSC, but LMWSC having 5K, 10K LMWSC were not formed the comples. In the ctotoxicity assay by MTT, plasmid/LMWSC complex showed negligible cytotoxicity for 293T cells for all molecular weight. Also, the efficiency of LMWSC mediated transfection to 293T cells was significantly higher than that of naked DNA for all molecular weight. Therefore, LMWSC will be useful in the development of safe gene carriers.
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