[Transgenic animals as bioreactors in the service of the pharmaceutical industry]

A modern pharmacotherapy without the use of proteins as drugs is not more practicable. In the clinic blood coagulation factors (factor VIII and IX), growth hormones (human growth hormone), enzymes (1-antitrysin, insulin), and cytokines are currently used. At the beginning, the proteins were isolated from biological sources or expressed in vitro by the use of E. coli or eukaryotic cell lines. At the moment efforts were undertaken to express these proteins in the milk of transgenic animals. This review article describes the methods for the generation of transgenic animals, the benefits and drawbacks of this new technique in comparison to established methods for the production of proteins as pharmaceuticals. At the end of the review possible improvements of the method are described.