Plate centrifugation enhances the efficiency of polyethylenimine-based transfection and lentiviral infection

Purpose

To propose an efficient, reproducible, and consistent transgenic technology based on plate centrifugation, which is particularly useful for polyethylenimine (PEI) transfection and lentiviral infection.

Methods

We optimized multiple factors that could contribute to transfection efficiency, such as the dosage of the PEI or DNA, the working solution buffer used for diluting the PEI or DNA, the incubation time for the PEI/DNA complexes, and the transfection time.

Results

Plate centrifugation led to a 5.46-fold increase in the transfection efficiency of PEI-based transfection while maintaining the cell survival rate. Moreover, the average copy number of viral genes in each genome increased 4.96-fold with plate centrifugation. Plate centrifugation alters the spatial arrangement of the PEI/DNA complexes or lentiviruses, increasing the chances of these complexes or viruses coming into contact with target cells, ultimately resulting in improved transfection or infection efficiency.

Conclusions

We present a protocol based on plate centrifugation for transfection or lentiviral infection that is suitable for genetic modification of primary cells or stem cells.