Featured Resources

High Throughput Transfection of Stem Cells
Poster: High Throughput Transfection of Stem Cells, Primary Cells and Difficult-to-Transfect Cell Lines: Jurkat, CHO, Human Skeletal Muscle Cells & Primary Neuronal Cell Transfection using a Scalable, Electroporation-Based Technology.

Advancing Drug Discovery
Poster: Advancing Drug Discovery with the MaxCyte® STX™ Scalable Transient Transfection System: Expression of Intracellular, Membrane-Bound and Secreted Proteins in Physiologically Relevant Cell Lines, Primary Cells and Stem Cells

MaxCyte Platform > Capabilities > Primary & Stem Cells

The demand for biologically relevant assays within early phase drug discovery continues to grow. Incorporating primary cells and stem cells within these campaigns has been limited due to the low transfection efficiencies of these cell populations. Thus, most high throughput and high content screening campaigns have been performed using cell lines. MaxCyte electroporation eliminates that limitation through its proven capacity to transfect primary cells with the quality and reproducibility required for use in drug discovery programs.

MaxCyte electroporation is also suitable for use with primary cells in clinical settings. MaxCyte scientists have an extensive background in transfection of primary cells with DNA, RNA, mRNA, proteins, and cell lysates within cell therapy development, manufacturing, and delivery. The cell viability, efficiency, and importantly, the safety of MaxCyte technology set it apart from all other primary cell modification technologies.


Proven High Quality Transfection of Primary Cells
Table 1: High efficiency transfection of primary cells
Table 1: High efficiency transfection of primary cells. Results of transfecting a range of primary cells with a GFP expression plasmid using MaxCyte electroporation technology. The transfection efficiency is expressed as % cells GFP+ at 24 hours post electroporation; viability is expressed as the % cells excluding propidium iodide

High Level Cell Viability of Transfected Primary Cells
Rat neuronal cells were transfected with a GFP expression vector via MaxCyte electroporation to examine the affects of electroporation on cell viability when using primary cells. Both mock transfected and GFP transfected primary cell populations had greater than 85% cell viability demonstrating the small degree of cell death associated with MaxCyte electroporation even for more sensitive cell populations such as primary cells. Additionally, approximately 50% of the cells were positive for GFP expression and had a mean fluorescence intensity over 135 (Figure 1 & data not shown).

Figure 1: High level cell viability of neuronal cells following electroporation
Figure 1: High level cell viability of neuronal cells following electroporation. E18 rat hippocampal, cortical and ventricular neurons were electroporated with either 0 or 200 µg/mL pGFP. Cells were plated at 5x105 cells/cm2 in multiwell plates. Cells were analyzed 5 days post-electroporation for cell viability and GFP expression.

Human Primary Cell Transfection & Cryopreservation
An additional benefit of the MaxCyte transfection technology is the ability to cryopreserve cells post electroporation even when transfecting primary cell populations. The data in Figure 2 summarize cryopreservation studies using human skeletal muscle cells (hSkMCs). hSkMCs were transfected with a GFP expression plasmid with and without cryopreservation and examined via FACS. The data illustrate the high transfection efficiency and expression levels (84% GFP+; 4170 MFI) of primary cells using MaxCyte electroporation as well as the ability to cryopreserve transfected primary cells without sacrificing cell health or transgene expression.
Figure 2: High quality transfection & cryopreservation of human primary cells
Figure 2: High quality transfection & cryopreservation of human primary cells. Human Skeletal Muscle Cells (hSkMCs) were isolated from adult biopsy samples and transfected with 200 µg/mL of pGFP. Cells were either examined 1 day post electroporation (fresh) or cryopreserved post electroporation and examined 1 day following cell thawing (frozen). GFP expression was assessed via microscopy and FACS analysis.