Expression and purification of a recombinant form of human aromatase from Escherichia coli

Aromatase converts androgen to estrogen, a hormone that plays an important role in the development of breast cancer. Aromatase inhibitors have been shown to be a useful endocrine regimen for estrogen-dependent breast cancer. Structure-function studies of aromatase can generate critical structural information for designing highly potent and specific inhibitors. However, aromatase structure-function studies have been hampered by a lack of purified protein. In this report, we describe the construction and expression of a recombinant derivative of human aromatase in Escherichia coli using the pET vector system, and the purification of the enzyme by means of nickel-agarose affinity chromatography. We examined the expression of the full-length, Del-38, C-6xHis-tagged Del-38, and NC-6xHis-tagged Del-38 forms of aromatase. The recombinant aromatase without the first 38 amino acids from the amino-terminus (i.e. Del-38) was found to have a higher activity than the full-length enzyme. Moreover, the addition of two separate hexameric histidine tags at both the amino and the carboxyl-termini (i.e. NC-6xHis-tagged Del-38) increased the binding affinity of the recombinant enzyme to the nickel-agarose. The expressed aromatase (i.e. NC-6xHis-tagged Del-38 aromatase) was eluted from the nickel-agarose with 80 mM EDTA. The total aromatase activity of the 80 mM EDTA-eluted fractions was significantly higher than the detergent-solubilized protein extract, indicating a renaturation process during the nickel-agarose affinity chromatography. Purified aromatase exhibited a single band when analyzed by SDS-PAGE, and activity up to 5.8 nmol/mg/min was obtained using the tritiated water release assay. The K(m) value for androstenedione was determined to be 62+/-24 nM by enzyme kinetic analysis. The recombinant aromatase preparation was also characterized by reduced CO-difference spectral analysis, reaction product extraction assay, and inhibition studies using two aromatase inhibitors (letrozole and anastrozole). The results indicate that the recombinant aromatase from E. coli has catalytic properties identical to those of the enzyme expressed in human tissue and will be very useful for further structure-function studies of aromatase.