Biologically active recombinant prothrombin and antithrombin III expressed in a human hepatoma/vaccinia virus system

Several systems have been devised that are based on viral promoters suitable for gene expression in eukaryotic cells. One such system, vaccinia virus, has been successfully used to express a variety of heterologous proteins following the construction of a recombinant virus. Indeed, because of the ability of vaccinia virus to infect a wide range of host cells, the expression system can be custom-designed so that a cell line can be instrumental in ensuring the correct processing of the recombinant polypeptide. We show that recombinant vaccinia virus and human hepatoma cells in culture are an efficient expression system with which to produce correctly modified and biologically active human prothrombin (15 micrograms/10(7) cells) and antithrombin III (40 micrograms/10(7) cells).