Using injectoporation to deliver genes to mechanosensory hair cells.Mechanosensation, the transduction of mechanical force into electrochemical signals, allows organisms to detect touch and sound, to register movement and gravity, and to sense changes in cell volume and shape.  Here we describe a method termed injectoporation that combines tissue microinjection with electroporation to express cDNAs and shRNAs in mouse cochlear hair cells.  Injectoporation allows for gene transfer into dozens of hair cells, and it is compatible with the analysis of hair cell function using imaging approaches and electrophysiology.  Tissue dissection and injectoporation can be carried out within a few hours, and the tissue can be cultured for days for subsequent functional analyses.
injectoporation
Here we describe a method termed injectoporation that combines tissue microinjection with electroporation to express cDNAs and shRNAs in mouse cochlear hair cells. 
electroporation