Highly proliferative normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHK) were isolated from human foreskin biopsies, cultivated in serum-free medium and characterized by flow cytometry. The expression of cytokeratin 19, cytokeratin 14 and vimentin indicated that the suspension contained a high percentage of undifferentiated cells of the basal epidermal layer. The NHK were transfected in vitro with lipid/DNA complexes made of Effectene or Lipofectamine and different reporter genes. The transfection efficiency of Effectene/DNA complexes was 20fold higher compared to Lipofectamine. Transfected keratinocytes continued to grow and developed within 2 weeks a cellular multilayer (3-D culture). Areas of transfected cells were detected within this layer.