epsilon-N-acetylation in the production of recombinant human basic fibroblast growth factor mutein

During large scale preparation of recombinant human basic fibroblast growth factor (hbFGF) mutein CS23(CS23) produced in Escherichia coli (E. coli), three species, named Mf-1, Mf-2 and Mf-3 in the order of their elution, were isolated from the early fraction of Sulfated Cellulofine chromatography by high performence liquid chromatography (HPLC) on heparin-5pw. Structural analysis through HPLC peptide mapping, mass spectrometry, sequencing and amino acid composition revealed that epsilon-N-acetylation occurred at positions Lys135, Lys26 and Lys119 of CS23. Together with this observation, the results on large scale preparation of CS23 were also presented.