Cloning and Expression of Recombinant Human Interleukin-7 in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) Cells

Background: the critical role of interleukin-7 (il-7) in homeostatic proliferation and t cell survival has made it a promising cytokine for the treatment of various clinical conditions, especially those associated with lymphopenia. methods: in the present study we expressed recombinant human interleukin-7 (rhil-7) in chinese hamster ovary (cho)-k1 cells. cho-k1 cells were stably transfected with both circular and linear forms of the pbud-hil-7 recombinant by electroporation. expression of rhil-7 in cho-k1 cells was confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) and dot and western blots. results: on western blots of transformed cells, a single 25 kda band was observed, consistent with the expected molecular weight of glycosylated hil-7. no significant expression difference was observed between cells transfected with circular or linear plasmids. conclusions: we established a stable cho-k1 cell line expressing rhil-7, which we consider to be a promising system for the production of rhil-7 as a biopharmaceutical.