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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

High Yield Expression of Recombinant Human Proteins with the Transient Transfection of HEK293 Cells in Suspension
Published on: December 28, 2015
Expression, purification, and refolding of recombinant fusion protein hIL-2/mGM-CSF
1Institute of Molecular Immunology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong, China.
Objective:
To study the activities of interleukin (IL)-2 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) (hIL-2/mGM-CSF).
Methods:
SOE PCR was used to change the linker of the fusion protein for higher activities. The fusion protein was expressed in Escherichia coli (E. coli) BL21 (DE3) in inclusion body (IB) form. After IB was extracted and clarified, it was denatured and purified by affinity chromatography. The protein was refolded by dilution in a L-arginine refolding buffer and refined by anion chromatography. The protein activity was detected by cytokine-dependent cell proliferation assay.
Results:
The expression of hIL-2/mGM-CSF in E. coli yielded approximately 20 mg protein /L culture and the purity was about 90%. The specific activities of IL-2 and GM-CSF were 5.4 x 10(6) IU/mg and 7.1 x 10(6) IU/mg, respectively.
Conclusion:
This research provides important information about the anti-tumor activity of hIL-2/mGM-CSF in vivo, thus facilitating future clinical research on hIL-2/mGM-CSF used in immune therapy.

