Development of in vivo gene delivery methods in mice using tissue suction devices for abdominal endoscopic gene therapy

Simple and easy in vivo gene delivery methods are required for the clinical use of gene therapy. Previously, we found that direct pressure to the kidneys, spleen, and liver induces the transfection of naked nucleic acids, which we termed as tissue pressure-mediated transfection. This method has been used with naked pDNA, siRNA, and microRNA. In the present study, we aimed to improve the tissue pressure-mediated transfection method. To this aim, we used a tissue suction device which we have developed previously. The target tissue was suctioned by the device following the intravenous injection of naked pDNA or siRNA. Transfection of pDNA encoding luciferase was achieved by the suction of the kidney, liver, spleen, and heart, but not the duodenum, skeletal muscle, or stomach. Since the suction device can be mounted onto the head of the abdominal endoscope, this method is a minimally invasive.