Over expression of the selectable marker blasticidin S deaminase gene is toxic to human keratinocytes and murine BALB/MK cells

摘要

BackgroundThe blasticidin S resistance gene (bsr) is a selectable marker used for gene transfer experiments. The bsr gene encodes for blasticidin S (BS) deaminase, which has a specific activity upon BS. Therefore, its expression is supposed to be harmless in cells. The work reported on herein consisted of experiments to verify a possible toxicity of bsr on mammalian cells, which include several cell lines and primary cultures.