Experimental Strategies in Efficient Transfection of Mammalian Cells: Calcium Phosphate and DEAE-Dextran

Transfection of foreign DNA into mammalian cells is one of the most common procedures performed by investigators next to cell culture itself. Whether the goal is to express mammalian or viral genes transiently or by the generation of stable cells lines, researchers have a variety of transfection methods to choose from Calcium phosphate coprecipitation and DEAE-dextran-mediated transfection are the oldest, and with many investigators, the most trusted of these methods. Paradoxically, the exact mechanism of DNA uptake for each of these methods remains unknown.