when looking at data lithium synbol obtained from studies with living mammalian cells, it appears reasonable to assume that dequalinium molecules lithium synbol could be pulled into the mitochondrial matrix in response to the high mitochondrial membrane potential as demonstrated in , which in turn might lead to the destabilization of the dqasomepdna complex however, the first detailed study, which demonstrated the selective dna lithium synbol release from dqaplexes, was performed using membrane mimicking liposomes fig as a model for the intracellular release of dna from lithium synbol dqasomes, the capacity of anionic liposomes to displace the dna lithium synbol from its cationic carrier was lithium synbol studied the association of dna with the cationic carrier was assessed by employing sybr green lithium synbol i the fluorescence signal of this dye is greatly enhanced when bound to dna nonbinding results in loss of fluorescence it can be clearly seen that in the vicinity of a charge ratio, dqasomes do not release any dna in the presence of cytoplasmic membrane mimicking liposomes dqasomes s � � o � u a � � � cpm imm ��� anionic liposomes i � � time [sec] fig effect of anionic liposomes on dna release from dqasomepdna complexes dna was preincubated with sybr until stabilization of the signal, followed by adding indicated by arrow the minimal amount of dqasomes necessary to decrease the signal to background level anionic liposomes were then injected arrow at an anionic to cationic charge ratio lithium synbol as shown the displacement of dna from its carrier is indicated by the increase of the fluorescence signal cpm, cytoplasma membrane like liposomes imm, inner mitochondrial membrane like liposomes omm, outer mitochondrial membrane like liposomes cpm, not even at a fold excess of anionic charge however, with a similar charge excess of anionic liposomes to cationic lithium synbol dqasomes, and respectively, inner and outer mitochondrial membrane mimicking liposomes imm and omm, respectively are able to displace up to of the dna from its dqasomal carrier in agreement with these data, it was found that for the complete liberation of dna from dna dqasome complex, a fourfold excess of dicetylphosphate and an eightfold excess of phosphatidylserine, respectively, are necessary the finding that cpm liposomes, at an anionic to cationic charge ratio of , displace up to of the dna from lithium synbol lipofectin, which was used as a control, do not liberate any dna from dqasomes even at a slight excess of anionic charge, leads to the conclusion that besides the charge ratio, other factors may play an important role in the mechanism of dna release from lipiddna lithium synbol complexes this conclusion is being further supported by xu and szokas observation that ionic water soluble molecules such as atp, trna, dna, polyglutamic acid, spermidine lithium synbol and histone do not displace dna from the cationic lipiddna complex, even at a fold charge excess � lithium heated gloves in their model for the postendocytotic release of dna from cationic carriers, they assume the formation of a charge neutral ion pair between cationic and anionic lipid, which ultimately results in the displacement of the dna from the cationic lipid and the release of dna into cytoplasm liposomedna liposome ?