After Transfection - (Jul/21/2010 )

Hi All,
I’m new to recombinant protein production and I am a bit confused about the transfection of a cell line. We have a CMV plasmid in the lab which has previously been used to transfect COS-7 cells using Lipofectamine. Do the cells continue to divide and grow after transfection or do they stop growing and produce the protein? I’m after a few mg’s of protein and I’m trying to determine whether the COS-7 cells are the way to go.
Catherine

The cells should continue to grow and eventually the plasmid will be lost (through dilution by the dividing cells, as the plasmid isn't replicated during division). So long as the gene product is not toxic to the cells it should work fine.