Expression of human monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in the yeast Pichia pastoris

The human monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) was expressed at high levels in Pichia pastoris with the alcohol oxidase promoter. It was secreted from the yeast when either its natural signal sequence or the Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-factor signal peptide was used. SDS-PAGE and Western blot revealed two immunoreactive MCP-1 species at 15 and 8.5 kDa designated MCP-1H and MCP-1L, respectively; both were purified by cation-exchange chromatography. MCP-1H could be converted to MCP-1L by treatment with peptide N-glycosidase F, showing that the former is an N-glycosylated form of the latter. Laser desorption mass spectrometry showed that MCP-1L actually consisted of a mixture of three polypeptides of 8449, 8614, and 8780 Da and MCP-1H showed a broad peak at 11,134 Da. N-terminal peptide sequencing indicated that nearly half of MCP-1L lacked the two N-terminal amino acids found in the native protein. Both MCP-1H and MCP-1L could induce monocyte migration and calcium influx in THP-1 monocytic leukemia cells, although these activities were about 10- to 100-fold lower than those of MCP-1 produced in insect cells.