Morphological cell transformation of Syrian hamster embryo (SHE) cells by the cyanotoxin, cylindrospermopsin

Abstract Cylindrospermopsin (CYN) is a cyanotoxin which has been implicated in human intoxication and animal mortality. Genotoxic activity of this hepatotoxin is known but its carcinogenic activity remains to be elucidated. In this work, CYN was assessed for its cell-transforming activity using the Syrian hamster embryo (SHE) cell transformation assay. This in vitro assay is used to evaluate the carcinogenic potential of chemical, physical and biological agents in SHE cells, which are primary, normal, diploid, genetically stable and capable of metabolic activation. We demonstrated that CYN induced a significant increase in morphological cell transformation in SHE cells following a 7-day continuous treatment in the range of non-cytotoxic concentrations 1 × 10 −7 –1 × 10 −2  ng/mL.