Figure 5-2.1.1.2: A schematic representation of transfection by Calcium Phosphate Precipitation.
Advantages

• Simple and inexpensive
• Applicability to generate stably transfected cell lines
• Highly efficient (cell type dependent) and can be applied to a wide range of cell types.
• Can be used for stable ortransient transfection

Disadvantages

• Toxic especially to primary cells
• Slight change in pH, buffer salt concentration and temperature can compromise the efficacy
• Relatively poor transfection efficiency compared to other chemical transfection methods like lipofection.
• Limited by the composition and size of the precipitate.
• Random integration into host cell.

Optimal factors (amount of DNA in the precipitate, the length of time for precipitation reaction and exposure of cells to the precipitate) need to be determined for efficient transfection of the cells.

This technique is simple, expensive and has minimal cytotoxic effect but the low level of transgene expression provoked development of several other methods of transfection.