[Expression of human 17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase gene in BmNPV expression system]

Estrogenic 17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17 beta-HSD) plays a crucial role in the synthesis of estrogens, but it also produces negative action of estrogens in promoting the growth of hormone-sensitive cancers, especially in breast and prostate. The high specific activity can be taken as an important signal for the diagnosis of cancers. Recombinant rAcBm-NPV/17 beta-HSD virus which contains the human 17 beta-HSD cDNA under the control of polyhedron gene promoter is generated by cotransfection of the BmN cells with the transfer plasmid pVL/17 beta-HSD and wild BmNPV genomic DNA. 17 beta-HSD is maximally expressed 72 h and 120 h post infection in BmN cells and the 5th instar silkworm larvae respectively. At those time interval, intracellular and hemolymphic enzymatic activity reach 0.12 U/mg and 0.15 U/mg of protein which produced total activity of 0.97 U/1.5 x 10(6) cells and 4.7 U/larva. The expressed quantities in female larvae are a little higher than that in male larvae. The present data shows that Silkworm/BmNPV expression system can express 3-5 times higher than that of the richest human placenta. It also indicates that there is an apparent band with a molecular mass of 35 kDa using SDS-PAGE method, the size of which is similar to that of the crude enzyme from placenta.