A quantitative study of ultramicroinjection of macromolecules into animal cells

Improvements in the technique of ultramicroinjection of macromolecules into animal cells are described. The method is based on the Sendai virus-induced fusion of animal cells with erythrocyte ghosts containing trapped macromolecules. Fusion of hepatoma tissue culture (HTC) cells with ghosts prepared by hemolysis of erythrocytes in the presence of cytochrome C is much more efficient than fusion with ghosts prepared in the presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA) as in previous investigations. La+++ is more fficient in promoting fusion and less toxic to cells than Mn++, which was used previously. Thus in all subsequent experiments, erythrocytes were hemolyzed in the presence of cytochrome C plus other macromolecules to be trapped, and the resultant ghosts fused in the presence of La+++. The percentage of HTC cells which fused with ghosts reached 80% in many experiments. Ghosts containing 125I-BSA were used to measure the number of BSA molecules injected into HTC cells. About 10(6) BSA molecules were injected per fused cell. The overall efficiency of injection was low (about 0.02% of the starting material).