Limitations to the amplification and stability of human tissue-type plasminogen activator expression by Chinese hamster ovary cells.

Chinese hamster ovary cell production of recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) was increased by amplification of cotransfected dihydrofolate reductase cDNA using stepwise adaptation to increasing methotrexate (MTX) concentrations. The highest producing clones were isolated at 5 microM MTX and yielded 26,000 U/10(6) cells/day t-PA (43 microgram/10(6) cells/day). Above 25 microM MTX, cell specific t-PA production rates became increasingly variable and the cDNA copynumbers decreased. No apparent correlation between the cell specific t-PA production rate and the growth rate was observed upon subcloning of the amplified cells. When MTX selection was removed, the t-PA production rate decreased up to tenfold within 40 days; this was accompanied by an up to 60% drop in cDNA copynumber. Subclones isolated after 108 days of culture in the absence of MTX were, on average, sixfold more stable than their parental cells. In culture without MTX, the maximum stable t-PA production rate obtained (over 250 days) was 7000 +/- 750 U/10(6) cells/day (approximately 12 microgram/10(6) cells/day), approximately threefold lower than the maximum unstable levels of production reached under selective pressure. Taken together, these results define a wide range of the highest t-PA expression rates obtained under MTX selection, for which stable expression without selection has not been reported.

Relationship between recombinant activated protein C secretion rates and mRNA levels in baby hamster kidney cells.

Analysis of 12 baby hamster kidney (BHK) clones in exponential growth revealed a linear relationship between cell-specific recombinant activated protein C (APC) production rates and APC mRNA levels. This correlation indicated that mRNA levels limited APC productivity. Two strategies were employed to increase APC mRNA levels and APC productivity. First, sodium butyrate was added to increase mRNA levels by two- to sixfold in five APC-producing clones to obtain up to 2.7-fold increase in APC production rate. The second strategy was to retransfect an APC-producing BHK cell line with a vector containing additional APC cDNA and a mutant DHFR. This mutant DHFR gene allowed the selection of retransfected clones in higher MTX concentrations. Over two-fold higher mRNA levels were obtained in these retransfected clones and the cell-specific APC production rate increased twofold. At the highest level of APC secretion, increases in mRNA levels did not result in higher rates of APC production. Analysis of the intracellular APC content revealed a possible saturation in the secretory pathway at high mRNA levels. The relation between mRNA level and APC secretion rate was also investigated in batch culture. The levels of total cellular RNA, APC mRNA, and beta-actin mRNA were relatively stable while cells were in the exponential growth phase, but rapidly decreased when cells reached the stationary phase. The decline of cell-specific APC mRNA levels correlated with a decline in APC secretion rates, which indicated that the mRNA levels continued to limit the rates beyond the exponential phase and into the declining growth and stationary phases of batch APC production.

Effect of cDNA copy number on secretion rate of activated protein C.

The secretion rate of activated protein C (APC) by BHK cells was increased 35-fold by increasing the cDNA copy number per cell from 50 to 240. In this range, the relation between APC secretion and cDNA copy number was not linear and the rate of APC secretion per cDNA copy increased sevenfold. This apparent cooperative effect of multiple cDNA copies could be related to their integration in tandem. For cDNA copy numbers higher than 240, the APC secreation rate per cDNA and per cell decreased dramatically. The gamma-carboxylation of glutamic acid residues, a posttranslational modification required for APC biological activity, was also investigated. The proportion of APC that was fully gamma-carboxylated decreased as the secretion rate of APC increased. (c) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Molecular and developmental studies of a sperm acrosome antigen recognized by HS-63 monoclonal antibody.

A conserved mouse sperm antigen (MSA-63) recognized by a monoclonal antibody (HS-63) was isolated from mouse testes by single-step immunoaffinity chromatography. Isolated MSA-63 preparation was shown to be a group of proteins ranging from 24-84 kDa and with isoelectric points (pIs) ranging from 4.0-6.0 when analyzed by two-dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis. Microsequencing techniques were employed to determine the relationships of various protein spots on 2-D gels. Partial amino acid sequences of some protein spots in isolated MSA-63 preparation were shown to be homologous to mouse actins, while others revealed homology only to the SP-10 protein. Rabbit antisera raised against isolated MSA-63 antigen preparation were used to immunoscreen a mouse testis cDNA library. Isolated cDNA clones carrying a 1.2-kb insert were used to obtain nucleotide sequences containing open-reading frames and to deduce the corresponding amino acid sequence of MSA-63. A high degree of homology was observed between MSA-63 and a known human sperm antigen, SP-10, at DNA/protein levels. Amino acid sequences of tryptic peptides derived from protein spots of 24-47 kDa and pIs of 4.2-4.4 were found to be identical to those deduced from isolated cDNA clones. The gene expression of MSA-63 during spermatogenesis in mice was studied using a specific cDNA probe as well as HS-63. It was observed that MSA-63 was not expressed until the postmeiotic stages of spermatogenesis.

Monoclonal antibodies affecting sperm-zona binding and/or zona-induced acrosome reaction.

The majority of anti-sperm monoclonal antibodies which were shown to inhibit in vitro fertilization in our laboratory react with antigens in the acrosomal region of spermatozoa. To elucidate the mechanism of human and/or mouse fertilization inhibition, the effects of these antibodies on mouse sperm-zona binding and mouse zona-induced acrosome reaction in vitro were studied. Among these antibodies, MS-4 and MS-7 were shown to react partially with uncapacitated mouse sperm, and to react more with capacitated mouse sperm, whereas HS-9, HS-11 and HS-63 react only with capacitated and acrosome-intact human or mouse sperm. HS-63 and MS-4 were shown to inhibit zona-induced acrosome reaction significantly, but not the sperm-zona binding. On the other hand, HS-9, HS-11 and MS-7 were shown to inhibit both sperm-zona binding and zona-induced acrosome reaction. The results of this study suggest that fertilization inhibition caused by these antibodies could result from that of the initial sperm-zona binding and/or zona-induced acrosome reaction.