Development of Gene Transfection Method Using Combined Plasma and Pulsed Electric Field in Liquid*

There is a big demand of gene transfection technology in various fields including biological, agricultural, and medical field (e.g., cancer therapy, genetic modification, making the induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells). In this study, experiments for development of a new method of gene transfection into living cells using discharge in liquid (plasma in liquid) have been conducted. As a new gene transfection method, a treatment using plasma in liquid combined with pulsed electric field was proposed. By the treatment with plasmid DNA (pDNA), we achieved a high transfection efficiency of more than 40% in an adherent cell line (MCF-7) and that of more than 20% in a floating cell line (Jurkat). In addition, cell viability at 24 hours after the treatment was over 60% in each cell line. These results indicated the proposed method was highly efficient and less invasive, and showed a potential to be further improved. In the presentation, recent results including improvement of gene transfection efficiency will be discussed.