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Updated: Jul 5, 2026
A Cell Free Assay System Estimating the Neutralizing Capacity of GM-CSF Antibody using Recombinant Soluble GM-CSF Receptor
Published on: June 27, 2011
Oral administration of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor expressed in rice endosperm
Tingting Ning1, Tingting Xie, Qingchuan Qiu
1Engineering Research Center for Plant Biotechnology and Germplasm Utilization, Ministry of Education, Department of Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, PR China.
Abstract:
Human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) is used clinically to treat leucopenia typically caused by cancer chemotherapy or radiotherapy. This study used multiple strategies to obtain very high expression levels of OsrhGM-CSF (14 microg/seed) in rice endosperm. Electron micrographs of immunogold-labeled transgenic endosperm showed that rhGM-CSF was not only localized in protein bodies but was also distributed in the apoplast. A biological activity assay indicated that OsrhGM-CSF stimulated the growth of TF-1 cells in vitro. In addition, the transgene was used to effectively treat leucopenia by oral administration of the unprocessed transgenic grains. In cyclophosphamide-induced leucopenic mice, transgenic seeds produced a 27% (t=0.021) gain in leukocytes after 14 days feeding. Even in non-leucopenic mice, leukocyte gain was 37% (t=0.002) more than that of mice fed non-transgenic seeds. This study provides a novel approach to the use of oral unprocessed transgenic OsrhGM-CSF seeds to treat leucopenia.
