Needle-like morphology of H2K4b polyplexes associated with increases in transfection in vitro.

SUMMARY: Several synthetic histidine-lysine (HK) polymers have been screened for their efficacy as carriers of nucleic acids in vitro. One branched HK polymer, H2K4b (and its derivatives), has been particularly effective as an in vitro carrier of plasmids. In this study, we investigated whether various salt conditions during formation of the H2K4b/plasmid DNA polyplex affected transfection.