Figure 1.

Delivery of siGLO chitosan nanoparticles in vitro and in vivo. (A) HEK293 cells were transfected with 200 pmol of siGLO complexed with 5 μg of chitosan nanoparticles. Fluorescent cells containing siGLO were observed by fluorescence microscopy. HEK293 cells were also transfected with chitosan nanoparticles containing green fluorescent protein expression plasmid, pEGFP-N2, as a positive control. (B) The green fluorescence from the frozen lung sections of mice treated transdermally with siGLO or intranasal pEGFP-N2 nanoparticles was monitored by fluorescence microscopy. (C) siGLO nanoparticle cream containing 2 nmol of siGLO was spread on the backs of BALB/c nude mice, and a second dose of siGLO nanoparticles was administered 24 h later. The transdermally-delivered siGLO was detected 48 h after the initial treatment by in vivo imaging using the Xenogen IVIS system. Mice receiving intranasal pEGFP-N2 chitosan nanoparticles were included as positive control for in vivo imaging.