Gemini surfactants are versatile gene delivery agents because of their ability to bind and compact DNA and their low cellular toxicity. Through modification of the alkyl tail length and the chemical nature of the spacer, new compounds can be generated with the potential to improve the efficiency of gene delivery. Amino acid (glycine and lysine) and dipeptide (glycyl-lysine and lysyl-lysine) substituted spacers of gemini surfactants were synthesized, and their efficiency of gene delivery was assessed in epithelial cells for topical cutaneous and mucosal applications. Three different epithelial cell lines, COS-7, PAM212 and Sf 1Ep cells, were transfected with plasmid DNA encoding for interferon gamma and green fluorescent protein complexed with the amino acid-substituted gemini compounds in the presence of 1,2 dioleyl-sn-glycero-phosphatidyl-ethanolamine as a helper lipid. Gene expression was quantified by ELISA. Size, zeta potential and circular dichroism measurements were used to characterize the plasmid-gemini (PG) and plasmid-gemini surfactant-helper lipid (PGL) complexes. Gene expression was found to increase up to 72h and then declined by the 7th day. In general, the glycine-substituted surfactant showed consistently high gene expression in all three cell lines. Results of physicochemical and spectroscopic studies of the complexes indicate that substitution of the gemini spacer does not interfere with compaction of the DNA. The superior performance of these spacer-substituted gemini surfactants might be attributed to their better biocompatibility compared to the surfactants possessing unsubstituted spacers.