Figure 4.

Physicochemical properties of the polyplexes. (A) Agarose gel electrophoresis of the chitosan/polyethylenimine/peptide complex at different weight/weight ratios. Lane 1: marker; lane 2: naked DNA; lane 3: weight/weight = 0.5; lane 4: weight/weight = 1; lane 5: weight/weight = 2; lane 6: weight/weight = 3; and lane 7: weight/weight = 4. (B) zeta potential of the polyplexes formed by pGL3 plasmid with polyethylenimine, chitosan-linked polyethylenimine, and chitosan/polyethylenimine/peptide complex at the gene delivery’s weight/weight ratios and (C) Particle size (measured by dynamic light scattering) (D) Morphology of the chitosan/polyethylenimine/peptide/DNA complex (weight/weight = 20) as observed by transmission electron microscope (×65,000). Bar: 200 nm.

Abbreviations: CP, chitosan-linked polyethylenimine; CPT, chitosan/polyethylenimine/peptide complex; PEI, polyethylenimine.