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Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter Publication Acceptance Date: 6/24/1998 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Book review interpretive summary not required Technical Abstract: Biotechnology has made feasible the production of many complex proteins of importance in human or animal medicine in cultures of single cells, either microbial or animal. Animal cells can accomplish the posttranslation modifications of these protein products that are essential for their biological function. For this reason they are often preferred for production over the more easily grown microbial cells which can not perform these modifications. Several types of eukaryotic cells are available as hosts for gene expression, insect cells have some advantages that make them the host of choice. They can be subcultured indefinitely without being transformed, eliminating the possible risk of the presence of cancer-promoting substances. Insect cells do not require a suitable substrate for attachment, but grow readily in suspension, making them easier to grow in commercial scale reactors. They are not likely to contain viruses that would present a hazard to humans or other warm blooded animals. The vector used to transfer the foreign gene to the cell, a baculovirus, is derived from a group of viruses that infects only arthropods. This virus contains several very active promoters and so the yields of expressed protein can be very high, as much as 20-250 times that of mammalian cells. The baculovirus-insect cell system has been used to express approximately 500 gene products in insect cells. In this chapter, the baculovirus system and the expression of heterologous genes in insect cells will be reviewed with emphasis on optimizing the expression and scale up of the production systems. |
