Figure 5. Effect of DNase I inhibitor on transfection efficiency

DNAse inhibitor doubles productive transfection efficiency of HTM cells. Cells in log-phase of growth were transfected with plasmid DNA encoding GFP in the presence or absence of a DNase I inhibitor (aurintricarboxylic acid,ATA, 100 nM). Cells were fixed, counterstained with DAPI and visualized using epifluorescence microscopy. Cells expressing GFP protein and total cells (at least 300 cells per condition) were captured digitally and counted to calculate average transfection efficiencies. Statistical differences between ATA-treated and untreated cells were assessed using Student's t-test (asterisk indicates a p<0.01).