Calcium carbonate microparticles used as a gene vector for delivering p53 gene into cancer cells

Calcium carbonate (CaCO(3) ) microparticles were for the first time used for efficient delivery of p53 gene to transfect human cancer cells HeLa. CaCO(3) microparticles (2-4 μm) absorbed pEGFP-C1-p53 (expressing GFP-P53 fusion protein) to transfect HeLa cells. Flow cytometer (FCM) was used to evaluate the gene transfection efficiency in HeLa cells, which were stably transduced with a green fluorescent protein gene. In this study, CaCO(3) delivering pEGFP-C1-p53 could transfect about 5% of the tumor cells in culture. However, the efficiency of tumor cell apoptosis was surprisingly up to 80%. Meanwhile, the results of MTT assay and crystal violet staining showed that the CaCO(3) microparticles had low cytotoxicity. These findings showed that CaCO(3) microparticles were perspective to be used as new vectors for gene therapy.