Gene therapy is a promising tool for cardiovascular disease treatment. Its wide clinical application is, however, limited by the lack of suitable targeted gene delivery systems. In this work, a non-viral vector was tested - composed by polyethyleneimine and magnetic nanoparticles (PEI/MNP) - with primary endothelial cells as in vitro model for angiogenesis and CD133+ hematopoietic stem cells. The obtained results indicate that transient genetic modification of cells with miRNA delivered by PEI/MNP is feasible and results in their magnetization sufficient for targeting and MRI detection
