Hybrid glycoproteins formation

Glycoproteins with FSH and LH activities are both dimers with molecular weights of approximately 30,000. They can readily be reduced to monomers by treatment with high salt concentrations or extremes of pH, and this property permits the formation of hybrid molecules which may be present in some highly purified preparations. The implications of this property of the gonadotropin molecules have been discussed. 

In the next contribution we learn about hands-on experience and recent improvements with different production systems for biopharmaceuticals at Bayer Health-Care. As previously also published in Nature by Heiner Apeler, Head of Expression, an E. coli host/vector system was originally developed for the efficient production of an interleukin-4 variant, but afterwards it was optimized for the expression of other proteins and even Fab fragments. Process development and optimization of the yeast secretory Saccharomyces cerevisiae for expression of a protease inhibitor will also be presented. The focus, however, is on the use of a recently developed mammalian HKBll (hybrid clone of human kidney and B cells) expression system for recombinant human glycoprotein biopharmaceuticals. HKBll is a favorable cell host for the production of human proteins, because it dehvers biopharmaceuticals that are structurally identical to the natural product. The host/vector system supports the production of gram quantities of proteins in a large-scale transient transfection format as well as the development of stable cell fines. These systems together... 

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