Importance of collision frequency in the molecular size dependency of gene transfer efficiency in the surface discharge method

The gene/molecule introduction method using surface discharge enables transfection into a wider area, compared with the micro-plasma method. In this research, as the first step in elucidating the gene transfer mechanism in the surface discharge method, it was revealed that endocytosis is the main introduction mechanism in the surface discharge method, and that 80% of the introduction is due to endocytosis. Furthermore, the relationship between the size of the target molecule and the transfection efficiency was investigated. As a result, it was made clear that when target molecules with a molecular weight of up to 10 000 bp, the transfection efficiency is proportional to the collision frequency between the target molecule and cell. On the other hand, it became clear that when the molecular weight exceeds 10 000 bp, the transfection efficiency decreases with increasing molecular weight, and that almost no introduction is made at 15 000 bp or more.