Abstract
The ultrasound is applied to a medical field; ultrasound imaging, non-invasive treatment of tumors and lithotripsy. The ultrasound also has a potential to deliver some therapeutic materials, such as genes, drugs or proteins, into cells. It is known that microbubbles can improve the delivery efficiency. It is believed that the therapeutic materials can pass through the cell membrane whose permeability is increased by the microbubble destruction, or the ultrasound pressure. In this study, we try to deliver GFP plasmid gene into the fibroblast cell. Ultrasound (frequency=2.1 MHz, duty cycle=10%) is irradiated to the cultured cell through the medium, which contains microbubbles and GFP plasmid. The GFP plasmid transfection can be easily observed by fluorescence microscope. As the results of ultrasound irradiation under several conditions, the delivery of GFP plasmid was confirmed. It is needed to improve the transfection efficiency and optimize some experimental conditions.
