Determining toxicant bioavailability using a constitutively bioluminescent human cell line

Despite excessive expenditures by governments and private corporations, the toxicological effects of many chemicals and human relevant compounds are not well understood. Current methods for screening the toxicological effects of these chemicals are expensive, time consuming, and have been proven to produce results that must be interpreted with caution when extrapolating to human bioavailability and toxic impact. Here we demonstrate the use of a constitutively bioluminescent human HEK293 cell line expressing the genes of the bacterial luciferase gene cassette as a simple, low cost method for initial screening of toxic compounds. The autonomous nature of the bacterial bioluminescence cassette negates concerns over substrate addition, while providing a facile means for detection of reduced cellular growth or metabolism as a biomarker for toxic chemical exposure.