We offer transfection reagents for DNA, siRNA, RNA, and protein delivery, providing a range of options to best suit your transfection experiment:

  • DNA delivery—transient and stable transfection used to study gene function and regulation, mutational analysis and biochemical characterization of gene products, effects of gene expression on the health and life cycle of cells, as well as for large scale production of proteins for purification and downstream applications
  • RNA delivery—transient transfection allowing the knockdown of gene expression used in protein knockdown studies, phenotype analysis, function recovery, pathway analysis, in vivo knockdown, and drug target discovery
  • Protein delivery—CRISPR-Cas9 transfection allows for genome editing in broad applications such as stem cell engineering, gene therapy, tissue and animal disease models, and engineering disease-resistant transgenic plants

When selecting a transfection method, consider the payload you wish to deliver (DNA, RNA, or protein) and the type of cells you want to transfect. Use the tables below to choose between our various cationic-lipid transfection reagents and our electroporation transfection system.

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Invitrogen transfection reagent selection guide

Continuous cell lines are capable of unlimited proliferative potential, and are generally easier to work with than primary or finite cell cultures. However, because these cells have undergone genetic transformation to become immortalized, their behavior in culture may not necessarily reflect the in vivo situation.

ReagentDNAmRNARNAiCo-
delivery		CRISPR-Cas9Cell type(s)Adherent or suspension
Lipofectamine 2000 Common and easy-to-transfect cell typesAdherent and suspension
Lipofectamine 3000 Workhorse (HeLa) through to hard-to-transfect (cancer cells)Adherent
Lipofectamine LTX CHO cells and some primary fibroblast, epithelial and neuronal cells (MEF, HMEC and E18 cells)Adherent
Lipofectamine RNAiMAX   Established cell lines, hard-to-transfect cells, primary cells, stem cellsAdherent
Lipofectamine MessengerMAX    Neuronal cells, primary cellsAdherent
Lipofectamine
CRISPRMAX		    Tested in over 20 cell types including iPSC, mESC, N2A, CHO, A549, HCT116, HeLa, HEK293 and several othersAdherent
Neon Electroporation Suspension
Invivofectamine 3.0   In vivo delivery to liver following tail vein injection

Primary cells are isolated directly from the tissue and proliferated under appropriate conditions. As such, they are morphologically and physiologically more similar to an in vivo state. However, they are usually more difficult to culture and transfect than continuous cell lines.

After the first subculture, the primary culture becomes known as a cell line. Cell lines derived from primary cultures have a limited life span (i.e., they are finite), and as they are passaged, cells with the highest growth capacity predominate, resulting in a degree of genotypic and phenotypic uniformity in the population. Therefore, their phenotype is intermediate between primary cells and continuous cultures. The use of such cells is sometimes easier than the use of primary cells, especially for the generation of stably transfected clones.

ReagentDNAmRNARNAiCo-
delivery		CRISPR-Cas9Cell type(s)Adherent or suspension
Neon ElectroporationOver 140 cell lines tested; excels in hard-to-transfect cells, primary and stemSuspension
Lipofectamine 3000 Workhorse (Hela) through to hard-to-transfect (cancer cells)Adherent
Lipofectamine StemStem cells (except HSCs)Adherent and suspension
Lipofectamine LTX CHO cells and some primary fibroblast, epithelial and neuronal cells (MEF, HMEC and E18 cells)Adherent
Lipofectamine
CRISPRMAX		    Tested in over 20 cells tpes including iPSC, mESC, N2A, CHO, A549, HCT116, HeLa, HEK293 and several othersAdherent
Lipofectamine RNAiMAX   Established cell lines, hard-to-transfect cells, primary cells, stem cellsAdherent
Lipofectamine MessengerMAX    Neuronal cells, primary cellsAdherent
Continuous cell lines

Continuous cell lines are capable of unlimited proliferative potential, and are generally easier to work with than primary or finite cell cultures. However, because these cells have undergone genetic transformation to become immortalized, their behavior in culture may not necessarily reflect the in vivo situation.

ReagentDNAmRNARNAiCo-
delivery		CRISPR-Cas9Cell type(s)Adherent or suspension
Lipofectamine 2000 Common and easy-to-transfect cell typesAdherent and suspension
Lipofectamine 3000 Workhorse (HeLa) through to hard-to-transfect (cancer cells)Adherent
Lipofectamine LTX CHO cells and some primary fibroblast, epithelial and neuronal cells (MEF, HMEC and E18 cells)Adherent
Lipofectamine RNAiMAX   Established cell lines, hard-to-transfect cells, primary cells, stem cellsAdherent
Lipofectamine MessengerMAX    Neuronal cells, primary cellsAdherent
Lipofectamine
CRISPRMAX		    Tested in over 20 cell types including iPSC, mESC, N2A, CHO, A549, HCT116, HeLa, HEK293 and several othersAdherent
Neon Electroporation Suspension
Invivofectamine 3.0   In vivo delivery to liver following tail vein injection
Primary & stem cells

Primary cells are isolated directly from the tissue and proliferated under appropriate conditions. As such, they are morphologically and physiologically more similar to an in vivo state. However, they are usually more difficult to culture and transfect than continuous cell lines.

After the first subculture, the primary culture becomes known as a cell line. Cell lines derived from primary cultures have a limited life span (i.e., they are finite), and as they are passaged, cells with the highest growth capacity predominate, resulting in a degree of genotypic and phenotypic uniformity in the population. Therefore, their phenotype is intermediate between primary cells and continuous cultures. The use of such cells is sometimes easier than the use of primary cells, especially for the generation of stably transfected clones.

ReagentDNAmRNARNAiCo-
delivery		CRISPR-Cas9Cell type(s)Adherent or suspension
Neon ElectroporationOver 140 cell lines tested; excels in hard-to-transfect cells, primary and stemSuspension
Lipofectamine 3000 Workhorse (Hela) through to hard-to-transfect (cancer cells)Adherent
Lipofectamine StemStem cells (except HSCs)Adherent and suspension
Lipofectamine LTX CHO cells and some primary fibroblast, epithelial and neuronal cells (MEF, HMEC and E18 cells)Adherent
Lipofectamine
CRISPRMAX		    Tested in over 20 cells tpes including iPSC, mESC, N2A, CHO, A549, HCT116, HeLa, HEK293 and several othersAdherent
Lipofectamine RNAiMAX   Established cell lines, hard-to-transfect cells, primary cells, stem cellsAdherent
Lipofectamine MessengerMAX    Neuronal cells, primary cellsAdherent
SymbolExplanationSymbolExplanation
DNA for expression of protein, shRNA, and miRNAmRNA for expression of protein
Non-coding RNA for RNAi inhibition of gene expressionCo-delivery for cotransfection of
RNAi vectors and siRNAs
CRISPR-Cas9 for protein delivery  

Additional transfection reagents to consider

Transfection reagentKey features & applications of reagent
293fectin Transfection Reagent
  • Used for transient protein production in combination with the Invitrogen FreeStyle 293 Expression System
  • Optimized for suspension Invitrogen FreeStyle 293-F cells
Cellfectin II Transfection Reagent
  • Optimal transfection of insect cells, including S2, Sf9, Sf21 and Invitrogen High Five cells
DMRIE-C Transfection Reagent
  • Transfection of suspension cells, including CHO, lymphoid and Jurkat cell lines.
ExpiFectamine 293 Transfection Kit
  • Designed for transfection of high density suspension cell culture, with matching transfection enhancers that boost transfection performance and protein expression
  • Achieves protein yields 2- to 10-fold higher than other transfection reagents used on high density 293 cell cultures
  • Provides robust and reproducible transfection results
  • Scale transfections for culture volumes of less than 1 mL to greater than 10 liters, while maintaining equivalent volumetric protein yields
ExpiFectamine CHO Transfection Kit
  • Designed for transfection of high density suspension CHO cells, with matching transfection enhancer and culture feed to boost  transfection performance and protein expression
  • Achieves protein yields up to 3 grams/liter in high density Gibco ExpiCHO cell cultures
  • Provides robust and reproducible transfection results
  • Scale transfections for culture volumes of less than 1 mL to greater than 10 liters, while maintaining equivalent volumetric protein yields
FreeStyle MAX Transfection Reagent
  • Optimized for transient transfection in CHO suspension cells and also works for HEK-293 cells
  • Used for a large-scale transient protein production with milligrams of protein yield
Lipofectamine 2000 CD Transfection Reagent
  •  Same performance as Invitrogen Lipofectamine 2000, certified animal-origin free (“CD” = chemically defined)
Lipofectamine LTX & Plus Reagent
  • High transfection efficiencies and viabilities in common cell lines, particularly Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO).
Lipofectamine Transfection Reagent
  • First generation reagent for plasmid DNA transfections
  • In most cases, Lipofectamine 2000 provides better performance than Invitrogen Lipofectamine Transfection Reagent
Oligofectamine Transfection Reagent
  • Transfection of antisense oligonucleotides
Optifect Transfection Reagent
  • Broad use reagent designed for low confluency applications (<70% confluent at the time of transfection)
  • Useful for cell lines that are sensitive to transfection reagents

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