Preferential transfection of adult mouse neural stem cells and their immediate progeny in vivo with polyethylenimine.

The subventricular zone of the adult mammalian brain harbors the neural stem cell population with potential neural regeneration and repair capacity. We describe a nonviral technique to preferentially transfect in vivo the adult neural stem cell population and its immediate progeny based on intraventricular injection of PEI/DNA complexes. The transfected population was identified by cellular and ultra-structural evidence showing their proliferating status and expression of the specific markers GFAP and nestin.