Improvement in Sensitivity of Live Cell-Based Sensor Cells by Co- Transfection of a Reporter Gene Driven by a Modified HSP70B' and HSF1 Expression Vector

We previously reported that live cells transfected with a luciferase construct carrying the HSP70B' gene promoter increases the luciferase activity in response to toxic reagents and can be used as an intelligent cytotoxicity sensor device (i.e., sensor cells). In the present study, in order to improve the sensitivity of these cytotoxic sensor cells, we cotransfected the sensor cells with both the luciferase construct carrying the HSP70B' gene promoter (pMCREx3) and an HSF1 expression vector driven by a modified HSP70B’ promoter (pCRE/HSF). Cells co-transfected with pMCREx3 and pCRE/HSF showed 2.5 times higher sensitivity for CdCl2 cytotoxicity than cells transfected with pMCREx3 alone, indicating that sensor cells co-transfected in this way are useful and sensitive tools with which to detect a cytotoxic response.