Journal of
Cell and Animal Biology

  • Abbreviation: J. Cell Anim. Biol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0867
  • DOI: 10.5897/JCAB
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 262

Full Length Research Paper

Toxicity evaluation of dextran-spermine polycation as a tool for genetherapy in vitro

  Fatemeh Abedini1, Maznah Ismail14*, Hossein Hosseinkhani2, Tengku azmi13, Abdolrahman Omarb1,3, Chong PeiPei4, Norsharina Ismail1, Ira-Yudovin Farber5 and Abraham J. Domb5
1Institute of Bioscience, Faculty of Medicine, University of Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. 2School of Biomedical Engineering, National Yang Ming University, Taipei 112, Taiwan. 3Faculty of Veterinary, University of Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. 4Faculty of medicine, University of Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. 5Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, School of Pharmacy, the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
Email: [email protected].

  •  Accepted: 17 November 2010
  •  Published: 31 December 2010

Abstract

Cationic polymers are a leading class of nonviral self-assembled nucleic acid delivery systems. Cationic polymers have been shown to condence the DNA so that the entrapped DNA is protected from contact with DNase. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the effect of cationic dextran on the proliferation rate, morphological changes and biosynthetic activities in vitro. Cationic dextran was prepared by means of reductive-amination between oxidized dextran and the natural oligoamine, spermine. Four kinds of biological evaluations including cell proliferation assay, ultrastructural changes of cells using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), acridine orange/Propidium Iodide and cell cycle were studied. Our results clearly indicated that the toxicity of cationic dextran is dose depended and it is not toxic at low concentration and tolerable by the cells, and it can be used as a tool for gene delivery.

 

Key words: Dextran-spermine, genetherapy, nonviral vectors, toxicity.