Abstract

Gene delivery, a process of introducing foreign functional nucleic acids into target cells, has proven to be a very promising tool for inducing specific gene expression in host cells. Many different technologies have been developed for efficient gene delivery. Among them, electroporation has been adopted in gene delivery for decades, and it is currently widely used for transfection of different types of cells. Despite of the success achieved by bulk electroporation (BEP) for gene delivery in vitro and in vivo, it has significant drawbacks such as unstable transfection efficacy and low cell viability. In recent years, there is an emerging interest in understanding how individual cell accepts and responds to exogenous gene materials using single cell based micro-/nano-electroporation (MEP/NEP) technologies. In this review, the authors provide an overview of the recent development of MEP/NEP and their advantages in gene delivery. Additionally, the future perspectives of gene delivery with the application of electroporation are discussed.

Keywords: Electroporation, gene delivery, nano-electroporation, nanocarriers, microfluidics.