ABSTRACT
The ability to manipulate DNA and introduce it into cells by transfection gave rise to several disciplines of molecular biology that rapidly evolved from a scientific
discipline into the versatile technique it is today. Early studies were done in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells or COS-1 fibroblasts due to their high transfection efficiencies. However, the necessity to study cell type-specific signaling has increased the demand for more effective transfection reagents and led to the use of viruses as DNA delivery systems for cells that are difficult to transfect. Cells of the hematopoietic lineage, in particular, have been relatively refractory to these approaches, with low transfection efficiencies in mouse macrophages and few reports of transfection of human cells [1, 2].
