Abstract (eng)
In this diploma thesis the transfection reagents CalPhosTM, LipofectamineTM 2000, GenCarrier-2TM and FuGENE®HD, widely used, commercially available transfection reagents, have been compared and tested on primary hippocampal neurons. To optimize the transfection efficiency, different parameters were varied. Additionally the condition of transfected cells was evaluated by electrophysiological measurements.
The comparison of the different transfection reagents indicated, that only CalPhosTM and LipofectamineTM 2000 led to an acceptable transfection success. Furthermore, a dependence of transfection efficiency on the cell-age was observed. Experiments on cells of different ages showed that best transfection success was obtained with cells younger than 7 days. The optimal concentration of LipofectamineTM 2000 was tested in another series of experiments. An even better success with low concentration of LipofectamineTM 2000 and a destructive effect, when high concentrations of LipofectamineTM2000 were used, was observed. The effect on transfection efficiency with different DNA concentrations was tested by using 7,5μL and 15μL LipofectamineTM 2000. With both concentrations of LipofectamineTM2000 a better success of transfection was observed with DNA concentrations higher than 1μg, but further increasing the DNA amount did not continue to enhance transfection rates.
In the last set of experiments the influence of medium-supplements, like Nuts and KYN, was investigated, but these additions did not reveal any positive effect on transfection rates.
In conclusion I report, that for hippocampal neurons in primary culture, 7,5μL LipofectamineTM 2000 and more than 1μg DNA, when applied on young neurons (<14 days), yields highest transfection efficiency (> 5%).