Filamentous condensation of DNA induced by pegylated poly-L-lysine and transfection efficiency.

In this paper we propose a detailed analysis of structural and morphological properties of two poly-L-lysine (PLL)-based transfection formulations, PLL/DNA and pegylated PLL (PLL-g-PEG)/DNA, by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Comparing PLL-g-PEG/DNA with PLL/DNA polyplexes, we demonstrate that, due to the presence of PEG, the particles differ not only in size, shape, and crystalline structure, but also in transfection efficiency. While PLL condensates DNA in large agglomerates, PLL grafted with polyethylene glycol 2000 can condensate DNA in long filaments with diameters of some nanometers (6-20 nm). These structures are dependent on the grafting ratio and are more efficient than compacted ones, showing that DNA uptake and processing by cell is directly related to physicochemical properties of the polyplexes.