Abstract: BACKGROUND ＆ AIM: To explore the feasibility of sperm as foreign gene vectors and assess the effect of liposome during the sperm transfection. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Spermatozoa samples obtained from mature golden hamster epididymis were incubated with foreign DNA by co－culture and lipsome mediated methods. And two group samples were detected by PCR, Southern blot and FISH, and analyzed by statistics. RESULTS: Golden hamster spermatozoa could take exotic DNA voluntarily,further FISH research showed some DNA get into the head of the sperms. The transfection ratio of liposome mediated group was higher than co-culture group(P<0.001). There was significant difference in transfection ratio between two groups(P<0.05). No signals was found in dead spermatozoa after rinsed. CONCLUSION:Living spermatozoa can be transfected by foreign DNA even if liposome is absent,this transfection is most probably due to the active capture of the spermatozoa. Liposome can improve the foreign DNA transfection ratio of the spermatozoa.

Key words: spermatozoa, transgenic vector, lipsome