Flow-through Electroporation for Transfection Based on Low-frequency Ac Voltage

Department of Chemical Engineering, Virginia Tech, USA Electroporation has been demonstrated to be an efficient technique for gene transfection on mammalian cells. However, traditional technique employing direct current (DC) electrical pulses has the problem of too much electrolysis and low cell viability, which limits the application in gene delivery study. We demonstrate here flow-through electroporation for transfection based on low-frequency alternating current (AC) source. We investigate the effects of the AC frequency on the cell size expansion, permeability, transfection efficiency and cell viability. Our technique provides a potential novel way for a convenient high throughput gene delivery.