Gene Expression and Pulmonary Toxicity of Chitosan-graft-Polyethylenimine as Aerosol Gene Carrier

Chitosan-graft-polyethylenimine (chi-g-pei) copolymer has been used for the improvement of low transfection efficiency of chitosan. the present study aims to test the pulmonary toxicity and efficiency of chi-g-pei as an aerosol gene carrier. mice were exposed to aerosol containing green-fluorescent protein (gfp)-polyethylenimine (pei) or gfp-chi-g-pei complexes for 30 min during the development of our nose-only exposure chamber (noec) system. chi-g-pei-mediated aerosol delivery demonstrated 15.65% enhancement of the fluorescence intensity. compared to pei, chi-g-pei showed no significant pulmonary toxicity. in summary, using chi-g-pei is safe and shows high transfection in aerosol gene delivery to animals, and enhanced efficiency was achieved through our aerosol gene delivery system. therefore, chi-g-pei and this system would be applicable to future study for aerosol gene therapy.