Fabrication of Galactosylated Polyethylenimine and Plasmid DNA Multilayers on poly (D,L‐lactic acid) Films for in situ Targeted Gene Transfection

This study presents surface-mediated targeted in situ gene delivery from gene-tagged poly(D,L-lactic acid) (PDLLA) films, which were fabricated via a layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly technique with galactosylated polyethylenimine (GP) and plasmid DNA (pDNA, pSV-β-galactosidase). A linear growth of GP/pDNA multilayered films was observed. The pDNA was continuously released from multilayered films for over 32 h. The multilayered structure degraded and simultaneously formed GP/pDNA complexes in situ when exposing to a physiological environment. The pDNA was well protected by GP against DNase I digestion within formed GP/pDNA complexes. Our results demonstrated that GP contributes to receptor-mediated targeting for cell uptake and in situ gene transfection. The results reported here are potentially important for gene therapy, surface engineering of biomaterials, tissue engineering and implant technology.