Epidermis-targeted gene transfer using in vivo electroporation.

The skin is an important target for gene transfer because of its easy accessibility. Recently, we demonstrated that an in vivo electroporation approach could be applied to plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid delivery in rat skin of the abdominal area. Plate-and-fork type electrodes were effective for gene delivery by skin-targeted gene transfer. Eight 12-24 V, 50-m electric pulses were delivered through the electrodes. Skin injection with pCAGGS-lacZ showed lacZ gene expression in the upper most cell layers (horny, granular, and prickle cell layers) of the epidermis on day 1 and in the subcutaneous muscle layer on day 7 after the pCAGGS-lacZ transfer. Slight skin damage as the result of the gene transfer procedure was evident on day 1 but absent by day 7. These results demonstrate that plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid transfer by in vivo electro poration at low voltage is a useful procedure for short-term skin-targeted gene transfer.