Enhancement of dendrimer-mediated transfection using synthetic lung surfactant exosurf neonatal in vitro

Pulmonary surfactants enhance adenovirus-mediated gene transfer but inhibit cationic liposome-mediated transfection in lung epithelial cells in vitro. This study examines the effect of the synthetic lung surfactant Exosurf on dendrimer-mediated transfection in eukaryotic cells. Exosurf significantly enhanced dendrimer-luciferase plasmid transfection in a number of cell lin es and was very effective in primary cells. Luciferase expression increased up to 40-fold in primary normal human bronchial/tracheal epithelial cells (NHBE). FACS-can analysis demonstrated that the transfection rate of the hu man T cell leukemia Jurkat cell line has significantly improved from 10 to 90% of cells at 24 h after transfection. Analysis of the components of Exos urf revealed that the nonionic surfactant tyloxapol was responsible for the enhancement of dendrimer-mediated gene transfer. The tyloxapol effect was due to increased cell membrane porosity and DNA uptake. Our results demonst rate that Exosurf and its component, tyloxapol, constitute a powerful enhan cer for dendrimer-mediated gene transfer in vitro. (C) 1999 Academic Press.