Liposome-Mediated Transfection of Mammalian Cells

The term “liposome” originated approximately 30 years ago to refer to lipid bilayers that form colloidal particles in an aqueous medium (1 ). Artificially developed liposomes were used effectively by 1980 to deliver DNA to cultured cells (2 ). The next advancement in liposome delivery vehicles was the development of synthetic cationic lipids by Felgner and colleagues (3 ). Subsequently, many different types of lipids have been synthesized and formulated explicitly for facilitating delivery of DNA or RNA entry into mammalian cells.