Is the formation of cationic lipid-DNA complexes a thermodynamically driven phenomenon? Structure and phase behavior of DC-Chol/DNA complexes say not

The currently accepted mechanism of formation of cationic lipid-DNA complexes (lipoplexes) relies on the basic assumption that equilibrium structure of lipoplexes is regulated by thermodynamics. The main consequence is that neutral lipoplexes are one phase whereas positively (or negatively) charged ones coexist with excess lipid (or excess DNA). The authors report a small angle x-ray diffraction study on the structure of lipoplexes made of the cationic lipid 3B-[N-( N,N-dimethylaminoethane)-carbamoyl]cholesterol and calf thymus Na-DNA. Here the authors show that positively charged lipoplexes can coexist with unbound DNA and they claim that steric size effects are definitely important to determine the equilibrium structure of lipoplexes.