High efficiency, site-specific transfection of adherent cells with siRNA using microelectrode arrays (MEA)

The discovery of RNAi pathway in eukaryotes and the subsequent development of RNAi agents, such as siRNA and shRNA, have achieved a potent method for silencing specific genes for functional genomics and therapeutics. A major challenge involved in RNAi based studies is the delivery of RNAi agents to targeted cells. Traditional non-viral delivery techniques, such as bulk electroporation and chemical transfection methods often lack the necessary spatial control over delivery and afford poor transfection efficiencies. Recent advances in chemical transfection methods such as cationic lipids, cationic polymers and nanoparticles have resulted in highly enhanced transfection efficiencies. However, these techniques still fail to offer precise spatial control over delivery that can immensely benefit miniaturized high-throughput technologies, single cell studies and investigation of cell-cell interactions. Recent technological advances in gene delivery have enabled high-throughput transfection of adherent cells, a majority of which use microscale electroporation. Microscale electroporation offers precise spatio-temporal control over delivery (up to single cells) and has been shown to achieve high efficiencies. Additionally, electroporation based approaches do not require a prolonged period of incubation (typically 4 hours) with siRNA and DNA complexes as necessary in chemical based transfection methods and lead to direct entry of naked siRNA and DNA molecules into the cell cytoplasm. As a consequence gene expression can be achieved as early as six hours after transfection. Our lab has previously demonstrated the use of microelectrode arrays (MEA) for site-specific transfection in adherent mammalian cell cultures. In the MEA based approach, delivery of genetic payload is achieved via localized micro-scale electroporation of cells. An application of electric pulse to selected electrodes generates local electric field that leads to electroporation of cells present in the region of the stimulated electrodes. The independent control of the micro-electrodes provides spatial and temporal control over transfection and also enables multiple transfection based experiments to be performed on the same culture increasing the experimental throughput and reducing culture-to-culture variability. Here we describe the experimental setup and the protocol for targeted transfection of adherent HeLa cells with a fluorescently tagged scrambled sequence siRNA using electroporation. The same protocol can also be used for transfection of plasmid vectors. Additionally, the protocol described here can be easily extended to a variety of mammalian cell lines with minor modifications. Commercial availability of MEAs with both pre-defined and custom electrode patterns make this technique accessible to most research labs with basic cell culture equipment.