Cationic polymers with low cytotoxicity and high transfection efficiency have attracted considerable attention as non-viral carriers for gene delivery. Recently we reported that ethanolamine (EA)-functionalized poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) (termed PGEA) vectors can have excellent transfection efficiency, while exhibiting very low toxicity. Herein different EA- and ethylenediamine (ED)-functionalized PGMA (termed PGEAED) vectors, as well as ED-functionalized PGMA (termed PGED) vectors, are proposed and compared for efficient gene delivery. In addition to the cationic pendant secondary amine and hydroxyl groups of PGEA, PGEAED, and PGED also contain flanking primary amine groups. PGEAED and PGED exhibited a substantially enhanced ability to condense pDNA into complex nanoparticles at the 100 nm level with positive zeta potentials of about 30 mV at nitrogen/phosphate (N/P) ratios of 10 or higher. More interestingly, no obvious change in the cytotoxicity of PGEAED was observed with a substantial increase in ED content. Moreover, the flanking primary amine groups induced by ED could be readily functionalized by glycyrrhetinic acid or cholic acid to improve the biophysical properties of the gene vectors. (C) 2011 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.