Early ultrastructural hepatocellular alterations after hydrodynamic tail vein injection

Background: Hydrodynamic tail vein injection (hydrodynamic transfection, HT) is one of the latest murine gene transfer models in liver cancer research. Transfected DNA constructs are composed of two plasmids, one containing the gene of interest and the other the sleeping Beauty-transposase allowing a stable integration of this gene into the hepatocyte genome. Rapid tail vein injection of a large volume of DNA-solution induces an acute cardiac congestion, resulting in a reflux into the liver, mainly in acinus zone 3. It has been shown that HT induces this hydrodynamic force leading to permeabilization of the fene…