2H-Cho-Arg is a steroid-based cationic lipid that contains a 2H-cholesterol skeleton coupled to an L-arginine head group and can be used to facilitate gene transfection. It forms a complex with plasmid DNA (pDNA) and decreases pDNA migration in an electrophoretic mobility shift assay at +/- charge ratios of 4 or higher. 2H-Cho-Arg facilitates transfection of a luciferase gene into H1299 cells, an effect that is reversed by the lipid raft-mediated endocytosis inhibitor methyl-β-cyclodextrin and the caveolae-mediated endocytosis inhibitor genistein , but not by inhibitors of clathrin- or micropinocytosis-mediated endocytosis. It induces cytotoxicity in H1299 cells (IC = 92.7 μg/ml).