Activation of receptor tyrosine kinases promotes gene transfection in rat neuronal PC12 cells by cationic liposomes

Cationic liposomes are commonly used to introduce foreign genes to the target cells. However, the methods are not applicable to several types of cells such as neuronal cells. We introduced the luciferase gene to the neuronal pheochromocytoma-12 (PC12) cells by cationic liposomes with a cationic cholesterol derivative (1) or 3-beta-[N-(N',N'-dimethylaminoethane)-carbamoyl]-cholesterol (DC-Chol). Efficiency of gene transfection into undifferentiated naive PC12 cells was extremely higher by the liposomes with the derivative (1) than that by the liposomes with DC-Chol. In addition, when the luciferase gene was transferred into the naive PC12 cells in the presence of nerve growth factor (NGF), the luciferase activity increased much higher than that in the absence of NGF. The transfection efficiency was also promoted by epidermal growth factor in the naive PC12 cells. This high efficiency was maintained in the differentiated PC12 cells obtained by incubating the cells with NGF for 7 days. We found that the transfection efficiency did not depend mainly on the differentiated states of PC12 cells but depended on the activation of receptor tyrosine kinases. It is supposed that the novel liposomes with the derivative (1) will be useful to study the problems in neuron and neuronal tissues for gene transfection. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.