Evaluation and Optimization of Lipofectamine 3000 Reagents for Transient Gene Expression in KYSE-30 Esophagus Cancer Cell Line

Background and Aim: Transfection of DNA/RNA sequence into eukaryotic cells has a major effect on scientific studies. Various methods are used to transfer the DNA/RNA sequence into cells, such as lipid-based carriers as the available and easy procedure. Transfection with cationic lipid liposome is introduced as a simple and efficient procedure for monitoring the DNA/RNA sequence through gene function analysis, including fluorescence imaging RNA and protein expression. This study aimed to investigate the transfection efficiency and cell death through GFP expression in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cell line KYSE-30 using Lipofectamine 3000 reagent. Methods: The pCDH-513b plasmid DNA was transfected into KYSE-30 cells using Lipofectamine 3000 in different concentrations of the plasmid DNA and reagent. The transfection efficiency was evaluated by fluorescence microscope and flow cytometry analysis to determine the percentage of GFP-expressing cells. Moreover, the viability and death of transfected KYSE-30 cells were evaluated using a trypan blue exclusion assay. Results: The transfection efficiency of KYSE-30 with Lipofectamine 3000 was increased with higher plasmid DNA concentration and a lower amount of Lipofectamine 3000 reagent. The Optimized concentration of 1.5 µg plasmid DNA and volume of one µl of lipofectamine 3000 reagents were identified for 95% transfection efficiency in the KYSE-30 cell line. The viability and death of transfected cells were 43% and 58% after transfection, respectively. Conclusion: The results indicated that Lipofectamine 3000 might not be suitable for transfection in KYSE-30 cells due to increased cell death.