Construction and Characterization of Recombinant HEK Cell Over Expressing α4 Integrin

Integrins are heterodimeric membrane proteins, which are exposed to post translational modifications in eukaryotic cells in contrast to prokaryotic cells. These modifications provide advantages for production of proper nanobody, mono and polyclonal antibody against this surface protein and also in aptamer selection process. Since the majority of diagnostic and therapeutic antibodies, target the surface epitopes, eukaryotic membrane proteins provide an appropriate model for further investigation on therapeutic agents.

Escherichia coli strain top 10, was used as host for ITGA-4 expression vector encoding the human integrin α4. The plasmid was extracted and consequently, ITGA-4 vector was digested to make a linear plasmid. Human Embryonic Kidney-293 (HEK-293) cell transfected with linear plasmid and subsequently screened for stable ITGA-4 expressing Cells. Three separated clones were isolated twenty one days after transfection. Chromosomal DNA was extracted from ITGA-4-transfected cells. The presence of ITGA-4 gene in HEK-293 genome was confirmed by PCR. The expression level of ITGA-4 on HEK-293 cells was also analyzed by Flow cytometry.

Flow cytometric analysis showed that HEK-293 cells have no expression of integrin α4 on their surface while 95% of transfected HEK-293 cells with ITGA4, expressed different levels of integrin α4 on their surfaces which correlates well with genomic DNA PCR amplification results.

The results suggest that we have successfully constructed the integrin α4 expressing HEK293 cell, which will facilitate further research into the production of antibody, nanobody and aptamer against α4 integrin.