Effective Transfection and Gene Silencing of Primary Murine Macrophages with Small Interfering RNA

Abstract

Transfection of murine primary macrophages to silence genes can be a challenging procedure because this cell type has developed mechanisms to evade cellular intrusion. The introduction of small interfering RNA (siRNA) encapsulated in liposomes to the cell to decrease gene expression is one of the methods that can be used to achieve gene silencing. There are different commercially available compounds to introduce siRNA into the cell, including Lipofectamine RNAiMAX and HiPerfect. The chapter will describe a method for gene silencing in mouse primary macrophages using liposome-based transfection of siRNA.

Keywords: Macrophages; Primary cells; RNA interference; Transfection; siRNA.