Diethylamine ethyl dextran (DEAE dextran) API can be made as a kind of polyanion reagent with large relative molecular weight, which can promote mammalian cells to capture foreign DNA, so it is used in gene transfection technology. The mechanism by which it promotes the capture of DNA by cells is still unclear. It may be that dextran forms a complex with DNA to inhibit the effect of nuclease on DNA, or that dextran binds to cells to trigger endocytosis

There are two different methods for DEAE dextran transfection. One is to mix DNA directly with DEAE dextran to form DNA / DEAE dextran complex, and then treat cells; The other is that the recipient cells are pretreated with DEAE dextran solution first, and then used to contact with the transfected DNA. DEAE dextran is different from calcium phosphate coprecipitation in three aspects: 0 it is generally used for transient expression of genes and is not easy to form stable transformed cell lines; D because of its toxic effect on cells, some cell lines (such as BSCI, CV-1, cos, etc.) have high transfection efficiency when using this transfection technology, while other types of cells have poor effects; 3 DEAE dextran can be used to transfect a small amount of DNA.